José Manuel Soria highlights tourism sector as key to economic recovery in Spain

In his speech, which was also attended by the Spanish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Federico Trillo, and the State Secretary for Tourism, Isabel Borrego, the Spanish minister stressed that the reformist policy of the Government of Spain has reversed the situation Spain was in at the start of this legislature; from deep recession to becoming the fastest-growing economy in the Eurozone, and from job losses to job creation.

José Manuel Soria highlighted the tourism sector as one of the driving forces behind this recovery. The minister underlined 2013 and 2014 as record years for the Spanish tourism sector, and all forecasts indicate that 2015 will be another record year.
Spain is consolidating its third position in the international ranking of inbound tourist arrivals (after France and the United States) and its second position in terms of tourist spending (after the United States), according to the WTO.

WTMFurthermore, in 2015, Spain has risen to first position on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index drawn up by the World Economic Forum for the first time. According to the 2015 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, Spain has the most competitive tourism sector in the world. Among other factors, this is due to Spanish infrastructure, cultural resources, adaptation to new digital consumer trends and the importance of tourism policies for the Government of Spain.

As regards British tourists, José Manuel Soria expressed his gratitude to British operators for their work on returning to pre-crisis levels, stressing that British tourism continue to be the most important in terms of the number of tourists visiting Spain. 15 million British tourists visited Spain last year, a figure that could potentially reach 15.5 million this year.

José Manuel Soria added that work is currently being done to increase the loyalty of the growing number of inbound tourists who visit Spain. "In the specific case of tourists from the United Kingdom, they show an exceptional degree of loyalty to Spain as a tourist destination. Over 82% of them return to Spain and over 40% visit Spain seven or more times", concluded José Manuel Soria.