International tourists will spend more than €59 billion on their trips to Spain this summer, 22% more than last year

This summer, spending by international tourists will grow by 22% compared to the previous year to exceed €59 billion, according to forecasts prepared by Turespaña based on a time series model. Visitor numbers will also increase by 13% year-on-year to more than 41 million tourists.

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, who advanced these forecasts during a visit to the headquarters of the State Society for the Management of Innovation and Tourism Technologies (SEGITTUR), pointed out that "Spain's attractiveness is being confirmed month after month".

Hereu stressed that spending by tourists who visit us is an injection of prosperity in Spain due to the important contribution it makes to both GDP growth and employment. "The increase in spending, above the number of visitors, reaffirms the leadership of the tourism model and pushes us to continue working on the strategy for a sustainable and inclusive tourism that contributes to the preservation of the destinations and the improvement of the quality of life of workers and residents", he stressed.

In this respect, the minister insisted on the importance of defending the social, environmental and economic sustainability of the tourism sector. "Moreover, tourism, as a generator of quality employment, contributes to a better redistribution of the benefits of its impact on the Spanish economy. We must continue to manage hand in hand with the autonomous communities and the tourism industry as a whole, improve governance and invest so that these billions of euros are distributed evenly throughout Spain over the year for the benefit of the whole country," he added.

€70 million for the Last Mile programme

During his visit to the SEGITTUR headquarters, the minister also announced that a total of 327 projects are beneficiaries of nearly €70 million from the second call for applications for aid from "Last Mile, aimed at boosting the digitalisation of tourism SMEs, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and financed with NextGenerationEU funds.

The digitisation of the tourism sector is key to continue attracting increasingly hyper-connected tourists with higher added-value stays. It is also one of the areas where Spain has the greatest room for improvement, according to the tourism competitiveness indicators measured by the World Economic Forum. For this reason, the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan devotes special attention to the digitisation of tourism businesses and destinations.

The number of beneficiary companies in this second call has been increased to 394, as some projects require the joint participation of two or more entities. Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia are the autonomous regions where companies have received the most aid.

There are two lines of funding within the grants: line 1, for projects that incorporate emerging or newly developed technologies with medium-low technological risk; and line 2, for projects that demonstrate proven technologies such as Big Data, cybersecurity, mobile applications, with low technological risk.

For line 1, 6 projects have been approved - 3 related to data space and 3 for the digitisation of the sector - and €5.6 million have been granted. And in the second line, aimed at projects for the implementation and adoption of new technologies that incorporate proven technologies, 16 projects have been approved, to which €4.7 million have been granted.

The third type of projects financed with this aid are those for the implementation, by SMEs, of tested technologies related to sensorisation, visitor safety, tourist demand, infrastructure equipment, etc. In this line, which is the only one eligible for 100% subsidy, 305 projects have been approved, which have been granted €59.1 million.

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