A tourist talks on her mobile phone on the terrace of a hotel in Palma de Mallorca, on August 24.Atienza / EFE
Every week that passes, new data is published confirming the unfortunate year of the Spanish tourism sector due to the coronavirus crisis.
And some even sink it a little more if possible.
The pandemic has wiped out a good part of this industry, which accounted for more than 12% of GDP in 2019 and which was reduced last year to a meager 4%.
In the final part of the de-escalation phases, the Government hoped that national tourism would be the lifeline, but nothing could be further from reality.
Residents in Spain also traveled and spent less, 40%, and the hole compared to 2019 is deepening.
The string of data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in recent weeks is blunt: national trips did not manage to counteract the collapse of foreign tourism.
According to the resident tourism survey, until September they made almost 42% fewer trips and total spending fell with the same intensity.
This means that spending on trips through Spain between January and September of last year was 15,150 million euros compared to the almost 26,000 million that were disbursed in the same period of 2019. It is true that this fall is moderate if compared to that registered in the expenditure of foreign visitors (it has sunk by 78%), but it does nothing more than deepen the galloping crisis in the sector and widen the sinkhole in company billing.
National trips
Residents in Spain made almost 80 million trips until September, 42% less than in 2019.
21.5
19.9
15.7
Travel during the state of alarm was limited to those for good cause
0.5
April
August
International tourists
In 2020, until November, there were 18 million arrivals in Spain, 77% less than in 2019.
The summer did not mean the recovery of international tourism.
10.1
7.2
2.4
0.0
April
August
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
National trips
Residents in Spain made almost 80 million trips until September, 42% less than in 2019.
21.5
19.9
15.7
Travel during the state of alarm was limited to those for good cause
0.5
April
August
International tourists
In 2020, until November, there were 18 million arrivals in Spain, 77% less than in 2019.
The summer did not mean the recovery of international tourism.
10.1
7.2
2.4
0.0
April
August
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
National trips
International tourists
Residents in Spain made almost 80 million trips until September, 42% less than in 2019.
In 2020, until November, there were 18 million arrivals in Spain, 77% less than in 2019.
21.5
The summer did not mean the recovery of international tourism.
19.9
15.7
10.1
7.2
Travel during the state of alarm was limited to those for good cause
2.4
0.5
0.0
April
August
April
August
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
“We have not had the capacity to cushion the drop at a general level, especially in the destinations with more weight for the economy.
Spain depends a lot on international tourism and domestic trips have been insufficient to compensate for this, as was already expected ”, argues Juan Ignacio Pulido, director of the Laboratory for Analysis and Tourism Innovation at the University of Jaén.
The consequence of this unprecedented collapse in demand is a hole in the Spanish economy of 110,000 million euros, according to Exceltur calculations.
This decline is explained to a greater extent by the low arrival of international travelers (61 million visits have been lost up to November, 77%, and the year will end at the levels of the late sixties).
Although what national trips generate also has an important weight on the activity, according to spokesmen for
the
tourism
lobby
.
On the part of overnight stays - the nights spent in a tourist accommodation - the INE gives two different data for residents in Spain.
On the one hand, in the resident tourism survey, until September a decrease of 28% was noted.
In this case, nights are counted, for example, in second homes owned or in the homes of family and friends, something that has a lighter economic impact for the sector.
If only the market options (hotels, apartments, rural tourism accommodation and campsites) are counted, which are those that concern the tourism industry, the hotel occupancy survey shows a 50% drop until November.
Overnight stays
Overnight stays in hotels, campsites, apartments and others suffered a 69% drop in 2020.
Among domestic tourists they have dropped by half, while for international tourists the drop is close to 80%.
Hotels
Tourist apartments
Campsites
Rural tourism accommodation
National tourism
August 2019
18.2
August 2020
12.0
6.9
6.2
2019
2020
international tourism
August 2019
28.8
7.1
August 2020
4.8
2019
2020
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
Overnight stays
Overnight stays in hotels, campsites, apartments and others suffered a 69% drop in 2020.
Among domestic tourists they have dropped by half, while for international tourists the drop is close to 80%.
Hotels
Tourist apartments
Campsites
Rural tourism accommodation
National tourism
August 2019
18.2
August 2020
12.0
6.9
6.2
2019
2020
international tourism
August 2019
28.8
7.1
August 2020
4.8
2019
2020
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
Overnight stays
Overnight stays in hotels, campsites, apartments and others suffered a 69% drop in 2020.
Among domestic tourists they have dropped by half, while for international tourists the drop is close to 80%.
Hotels
Campsites
Tourist apartments
Rural tourism accommodation
National tourism
international tourism
August 2019
28.8
August 2019
18.2
August 2020
12.0
6.9
7.1
August 2020
4.8
6.2
2019
2020
2019
2020
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
“The year ended worse than we expected.
The question now is not when we are going to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but how many companies will arrive alive ”, warns José Luis Zoreda, Vice President of Exceltur.
This concern in the sector increases in the coming months, especially because the health emergency has not yet been resolved.
There is only one green outbreak on the horizon (the vaccine) and many dark clouds: the coronavirus pandemic, above all, Brexit, the reduction in spending capacity due to the economic crisis derived from the pandemic, increased savings due to the uncertainty, loss of air connectivity, borders still closed ...
Slow recovery
Faced with this situation, the main analysis houses predict a slow recovery for tourism.
Raymond Torres, director of conjuncture and international analysis of Funcas, assured a few weeks ago that the foundation's forecast is that the sector will not return to the precovid level until 2023. Of course, it is based on such low figures that any improvement will be felt : “The hypothesis that we handle is of a 40% recovery of international tourism in 2021. And in 2022 we will still be around 80% of what Spain receives in a normal year.
In addition, reactivation will be slower on the islands, due to their dependence on air connectivity.
Despite everything, they will experience a strong improvement because now they are far below, ”says Torres.
The Executive, for its part, trusts in a somewhat earlier recovery spurred by the arrival of vaccines.
“We have our sights set especially on Easter.
This is where we hope to start the recovery of the sector, which will begin with domestic tourism and, little by little, with that from our European neighbors, to gradually incorporate tourists from distant markets ", says the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, in statements to EL PAÍS.
The professor of Applied Economics Juan Ignacio Pulido agrees on one part of both points of view.
On the one hand, it highlights the mobility that will be gained in short trips: "People will start moving fast at the national level."
Instead, he sees more problems with international visits.
“It will be slower and more complicated for foreign tourists to arrive.
In the next two years, at least, long-distance mobility will be reduced ”, predicts Pulido.
Average spending per person
In addition to the lower number of trips that have been made, the expenditure made by each tourist decreases, especially in the case of international tourists (19% until November)
Residents in Spain (euros per day)
2019
2020
47.58
38.68
Foreign tourists (euros per day)
2019
2020
155
135
With fewer trips and lower spending per person, tourism spending has plummeted in 2020.
The summer recovery of national tourism brought it closer to the levels of 2019, although it did not compensate for the collapse in the arrival of foreigners.
5.8
5.1
3.8
2.8
2.6
2.2
0.1
Apr.
Jul.
Aug.
Dec.
11.9
11.7
7.1
5.0
2.4
2.4
0
Apr.
Jul.
Aug.
Dec.
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
Average spending per person
In addition to the lower number of trips that have been made, the expenditure made by each tourist decreases, especially in the case of international tourists (19% until November)
Residents in Spain (euros per day)
2019
2020
47.58
38.68
Foreign tourists (euros per day)
2019
2020
155
135
With fewer trips and lower spending per person, tourism spending has plummeted in 2020.
The summer recovery of national tourism brought it closer to the levels of 2019, although it did not compensate for the collapse in the arrival of foreigners.
5.8
5.1
3.8
2.8
2.6
2.2
0.1
Apr.
Jul.
Aug.
Dec.
11.9
11.7
7.1
5.0
2.4
2.4
0
Apr.
Jul.
Aug.
Dec.
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
Average spending per person
In addition to the lower number of trips that have been made, the expenditure made by each tourist decreases, especially in the case of international tourists (19% until November)
Residents in Spain (euros per day)
Foreign tourists (euros per day)
2019
2020
47.58
38.68
2019
2020
155
135
With fewer trips and lower spending per person, tourism spending has plummeted in 2020.
The summer recovery of national tourism brought it closer to the levels of 2019, although it did not compensate for the collapse in the arrival of foreigners.
11.9
11.7
7.1
5.8
5.1
5.0
3.8
2.8
2.4
2.4
2.6
2.2
0.1
0
Apr.
Jul.
Aug.
Apr.
Jul.
Aug.
Dec.
Dec.
Source: INE.
THE COUNTRY
The experts consulted try to find past analogies to draw the reactivation of the sector, but the
coronavirus
shock
has broken practically all the schemes.
“It is not comparable to the previous crisis and it makes no sense to think that it will follow a similar pattern to the evolution of that time.
Of course, in the long term tourism will go back to what it used to be, people are not going to give up traveling ”, argues Oriol Anguera-Torrell, professor and researcher of Economics Applied to Tourism at the University of Barcelona.
European funds
In spite of everything, the sector and the Executive try to find the friendly face of the situation, if there is one.
Public institutions and companies try to take advantage of this downtime to, at least, equip themselves better for when the good times return.
“The pandemic has accelerated the transformations that the sector needed, such as sustainability and digitization.
We are going to be able to undertake all these changes with the support of the million-dollar recovery funds of the European Union ”, says Minister Maroto.
Island regions — those that depend most on tourism — work hand in hand with the private sector to present viable projects and attract the maximum possible of these investments.
In fact, both the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands have hired technical support from consultants such as KPMG and specialized companies to prepare the projects.
