tourist activity should break its record again in 2024

Spain’s tourism GDP should “exceed 200 billion euros for the first time” in 2024, explained José Luis Zoreda, Vice President of Exceltur at a press conference in Madrid.

If activity does cross this threshold to 202.651 billion, Exceltur estimates, this figure would represent an 8.6% increase over 2023, which has already seen a “spectacular growth rate.”

Tourism activity, a pillar of the Spanish economy, would then represent 13.3% of Spain’s GDP.

In the first quarter alone, tourist activity in the country increased by 13.8%.

According to Exceltur, Spain benefits from its “more favorable security situation compared to other destinations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the face of escalating conflicts in the Middle East”, but also from “continued travel globally, especially the Asian market” after the pandemic which had a strong impact on the sector.

The country, the second largest tourist destination in the world after France, is also benefiting from the increase in air connections and the diversification of the rail offer with the arrival of new operators.

Spain received a record 85.1 million international tourists in 2023, mostly from the British, French and Germans, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Faced with this peak in attendance, movements hostile to over-tourism are multiplying, from the Balearic Islands to the Canary Islands via Barcelona and Malaga.

“We don’t enjoy breaking attendance records,” José Luis Zoreda responded when asked about the topic.

“The record we have to break is that of citizen satisfaction,” he said, adding that the sector’s “concern” was to “continue to develop tourism in Spain so that it is sustainable and does not cause social repulsion.

Exceltur, which for years has supported the reorientation of tourism to move away from dependence on “sol y playa” (sun and beach), would like to “contain +growth for the sake of growth+ that does not take into account beneficial collateral effects for society,” he added.