Spain continues to increase the weight that tourism has on GDP. The activity of the sector rose to 184,000 million euros in 2023, a much higher figure – 17% higher – than that shown in the year before the pandemic, when 157,355 million euros were reached, according to the National Statistics Institute. (INE). In this way, tourism confirms that 2023 was a record year in wealth. The same did not happen with the occupation. 2019 continues to be – so far – the best 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 weight 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 to the end of 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 received 82.9 million, 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 good everything was already seen last summer. 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. The same happens with employment. The entity anticipates that in the summer section, 79,000 more jobs were created, of which 66,000 were permanent contracts. “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 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 subsectors related to tourism activity,” the entity states. It should be remembered that the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, has proposed promoting the norm before the end of next year.

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Tourism activity reached 184,002 million in 2023, 17% more than in 2019