Spain goes for record highs in number of tourists

Spanish tourism authorities hope to welcome a record-breaking 53 million visitors this year good enough for a 2.2 percent increase compared to 2002.

A report issued by Excelencia Turistica (EXCELTUR), an institution clustering major companies from all sectors linked to the leisure industry, broke the good news but warned earnings won’t fare as positively as the number of visitors.

According to the research study, average spending per tourist will be down by 2.6 percent, therefore, revenues won’t be as high as expected. A similar situation happened last year when the Iberian nation cracked the 50-million-tourist plateau whereas earnings fell slightly.

EXCELTUR believes the quick denouement of the war in Iraq and its fleeting impact on oil prices and stock markets is picturing a more upbeat scenario for the Spanish tourist industry than what experts reckoned earlier this year.

However, the German market will fall sharply by 0.5 percent for a fourth year in a row, amid an estimated rebound of the British market with 6.8 percent, followed by the Dutch and French markets with 6.7 and 1.5 percent respectively.

As far as domestic tourism is concerned, comprising almost half of the Spanish tourist demand, prospects point to a brisker picture regardless of the fact that a rising euro against the dollar makes overseas traveling, chiefly to the U.S. and Latin America, twice as much luring across the board.

In the first quarter of the year, uncertainty over the world situation kicked in and prompted a 10.4 percent drop in the number of foreign sunbathers in March. The three-month period closed with an 0.8 percent slide.

Average spending per vacationer also went down as a result of “browbeaten confidence and a shabby economic performance among top tourist senders,” the report concluded.

A sign of that weakened confidence was the decline in the tourist companies’ expectation index from 5.6 percent in the last quarter of 2002 to a nearly double-digit figure (9.9 percent) in the same period this time around.