Spain’s booming tourism sector set to grow a further 3.8% this year

It has driven the Spanish economic recovery, put smiles – and a healthy glow – on the faces of millions of Brits every year, and has been responsible for one in five of all jobs created in the country so far this year – and now Spain’s superb tourism industry is on course for a bumper 2016…

Exceltur, which is responsible for marketing Spain’s tourism sector on the global scale (probably the easiest job in the world, right?) has revised its growth forecast upwards from 3.4% to 3.8% for the year, which means that the solid start to 2016 the sector has already enjoyed is set to strengthen further as the holiday season proper kicks in.

For the past ten quarters now, Spain’s tourism industry has grown – that is, generated more revenue than the previous quarter – by more than 3%, making it the best-performing sector of Spain’s economy.

For the first quarter of this year the sector generated GDP that was 4.3% higher than the same period in 2015, adding 89,000 new jobs in the process. And this at a time that is traditionally the quietest period for holidays to Spain.

Allied to the strengthening real estate market, which is also showing similar levels of recovery and growth, tourism has long been something in which Spain excels.

This year, with safety concerns rocking the resorts of Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia, Spain is bracing itself for record visitor numbers in the summer as holidaymakers return in their droves to their old favourite haunts, many of which are on the Costa del Sol.

In contrast, Exceltur analysis estimates that Turkey, Egpyt and Tunisia have already ‘lost’ around 870,000 tourists for the year so far, while Spain has ‘found’ an extra 799,000… so, you do the math.

Further data shows that the percentage of foreign visitors to Spain this year so far has grown by 12.5%, while Egypt has lost a massive 46% of its foreign tourists in 2016.

Exceltur did issue one word of warning, however. Its research has found that the average spend per head so far in 2016 is actually down by 7.8%, with the body stressing that Spain should not seek to rely on such low-cost tourism and must once again go after a higher spending crowd.

Come the summer months, however, and that crowd is sure to have arrived – one only needs to glimpse the bars and clubs of Puerto Banús for proof of that.