The Spanish Tourism sector grows by 17% and increase the percentage that tourism has on Spain’s GDP. The activity of the sector rose to 184,000 million euros in 2023, a much higher figure than that shown in the year before the pandemic, when 157,355 million euros were reached, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).
Spanish Tourism sector grows by 17%
The same did not happen with occupation in the tourism sector. In 2019 continues to be the record year for tourism employment, when 2.67 million affiliates were registered, slightly more than the 2.5 million reached last year, 11.6% of the total.
According to the INE, the component with the greatest growth in domestic tourism consumption in 2023 was inbound tourism spending, with 55% of the total, which was 2.1 points more than the previous year.
Looking ahead at Spanish tourism for 2024
Looking ahead to 2024, Statistics anticipates historic figures. Both in international tourists and in tourist spending, Spain is on track to reach a new record year by 2024, which will exceed more than 84 million foreign travelers and more than 108 billion euros. Until October, Spain had 82.9 million visitors, which is 10.8% more than those registered in the same period of the previous year, with an expenditure of 110,984 million euros, 16.8% more.
The period from July to September recorded better than expected numbers, with the generation of 77,156 million euros of tourist activity, which represented maximum economic contribution. Exceltur predicts that real tourism GDP could close the third quarter of 2024 with an increase of 4.8%, compared to the same period in 2023.
Spanish Tourism news
The same happens with employment in the sector. In the summer period, 79,000 more jobs were created, of which 66,000 were permanent contracts. Spanish tourism news has suffered tremendous unemployment since Covid this is positive news for the tourism sector.
“As a result of this and with data as of September, the tourism sector generated 15.6% of the total job creation in summer in Spain, with a level of indefinite hiring that reaches 91.4% of the total of the affiliates of the sector, despite the seasonality of summer activity,” confirms Exceltur.
However, the tourism sector sees several challenges facing next year. Among them, he points out the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours. “Its approval would mean a total annual cost of 2,348 million euros for companies in the different sub sectors related to tourism activity,” Exceltur.
This could have an impact sooner rather than later as The second Deputy Prime Minister, Yolanda Díaz, has proposed promoting the new normal working hours before the end of next year.