MADRID (dpa) – Tourism, one of Spain’s biggest money spinners, is facing its worst year since 1995 with latest government figures showing a 7 per cent drop in tourism income since last year.
In one key destination, Majorca and the other Balearic Islands, hotel occupancy rates dropped in July by as much as 16 per cent. In the Canary Islands, they fell 13 per cent.
For nearly a decade, Spain’s tourism sector has been posting ever bigger growth figures – yet now, the success story is losing steam.
The incipient crisis has created alarm in the country where tourism earns 12 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs more than 10 per cent of the workforce.
Government experts blame the slackening European economy, while other analysts say that Spain has become too expensive to compete with newer “sea and sun” destinations such as Croatia or Turkey.
Spain is the world’s second tourist destination after France. Last year, around 50 million foreign travellers visited Spain, up from 35 million in 1995.
This year, however, the tourism sector has been plagued by one problem after another.
Storms swept sand off beaches on the Costa Brava and Costa Dorada. A general strike brought airports to a standstill. Basque terrorists staged bomb blasts which injured several tourists and the Balearic Islands introduced a daily tourism tax of one euro.
The September 11 terror attacks in the United States put a dent in tourism worldwide while an economic slowdown in Europe has curbed foreign travel in Germany and Britain, the two most important countries of origin of tourists heading for Spain.
The drop in demand has forced hotels cut prices by as much as 15 per cent.
Given the global context, Spanish tourism is doing well, tourism official Juan Costa said. “With the exception of the Balearic Islands, tourism is still growing at more than 2 per cent,” he stressed.
Yet other analysts dismiss government assurances that all is well, and say the introduction of the euro has contributed to making Spain a relatively expensive country considering the quality of its tourism infrastructure.
For years, the government has stressed the need to upgrade hotels and to diversify tourism products from just sea and sun to cultural, rural and adventure holidays.
The chaotic construction of hotels on the Mediterranean coast has spoiled part of the landscape and made it more difficult to attract “quality tourists” who can afford to spend more money, experts complain.
More tourists are indeed arriving in inland regions, but Spain’s image continues to be based on that of budget travellers tanning themselves on crowded beaches.
