Tourism in Spain: A Research Overview

This document presents a compilation of research articles focusing on different facets of tourism within Spain. The papers delve into topics such as the factors influencing tourists' length of stay, the value of tourism demand attributes for climate change adaptation, the travel & tourism competitiveness index, key stakeholders in cruise traffic, and the impact of climate change on domestic tourism. Additionally, the collection examines Chinese tourism in Spain, factors influencing attendance at cultural attractions, health tourism, accessible tourism competitiveness, and the dissolution of ETA's influence on domestic tourism.

Running Head: Travel and Tourism
Introduction to travel and tourism

Travel and Tourism 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The extent of government involvement...........................................................................................3
Pull factors/Consumer behaviour....................................................................................................3
Visitor statistics...............................................................................................................................5
Key Attractions................................................................................................................................7
Wildcard events...............................................................................................................................8
Significance of domestic tourism in Spain......................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Travel and tourism is a vast industry for every nation as it a great source of revenue generation.
This sector has a huge impact over the economic sector of the country and this essay will focus
over the impact of the tourism over the Spain. Spain has many attractive places along with
various adventurous activities to do which is the major factor for attracting the tourists in Spain.
This essay will cover the government’s involvement in the tourism industry, consumer behaviour
as this is the most crucial factor for tourism industry, and number of visitors in Spain will also be
covered under this essay. Further most attractive places and the wildcard events which are hosted
by the Spain will also be covered under this essay. These are certain factors which have great
impact over the tourism sector. Further, the significance of the domestic tourism in Spain will
also be included.

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The extent of government involvement
Travel and tourism sector improves the financial condition of a country as this sector is capable
enough to generate appropriate amount of revenues. Government of Spain has promoted this
sector in an effective and for the same, they have adopted various measures and supporting
strategies in terms of motivating the industries and the organizations involved in this sector in
terms of attracting the tourists (Vila, Darcy & González, 2015). With the support of government,
industries engaged in the tourism sector have enhanced the rank of the Spain across the globe in
terms of favourable places from the perception of tourists. Apart from this, it has also lead to
various factors through which beautiful and attractive infrastructure has been built in Spain with
regards to increase the revenues from the tourism industry. Travel and tourism sector in Spain
has also lead to development of the society as it had generated 862, 000 jobs in 2016 which is
approximately 4.7% of the total employment. According to the experts, this rate will grow by
2.9% in 2017 through which approximately 887, 500 jobs will be generated. Industries included
in this sector are hotel, travel agencies, passenger transportation services and airline companies
(Bujosa, Riera & Torres, 2015).
These are the major factors through which government of Spain has promoted the travel and
tourism industry. By the 2027, approximately 1, 016, 000 jobs will be accounted through travel
and tourism industry in Spain (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2017).
Pull factors/Consumer behaviour
Pull factors are the destinations, attractive places, luxurious services and real-life experiences
through which tourist attraction increases for the particular place. Along with these factors,

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sports environment of the particular country or place, safety features, environmental conditions,
sightseeing, cultural factors and the famous events of the particular place also acts as the pull
factors. All of these are responsible enough to attract the tourists and Spain has various and
unique pull and push factors through which it has become the favourite place for the visitors
(Inversini & Schegg, 2016).
The Spain is the favourite choice of visitors in summer holidays especially from the Northern
European countries and it is the second most visited place across the globe after France.
Approximately 70 million visitors visited Spain in 2016 which is the record number of arrivals.
Spain is also included in one of the safest destinations along with Egypt and Turkey which also
becomes the factor for attracting tourists (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2016).
(Source: Erlich, 2016).

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Below figure shows the most international tourists visited places in Spain in 2016. Catalonia and
Balearic Islands are the most visited places by international tourists.
Visitor statistics
Travel and Tourism has great potential and Spain is one of the most favourite destinations for
visitors. Following is the contribution of travel and tourism’s contribution to GDP:
(Source: World travel and tourism council, 2016).

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Total Contribution of travel and tourism of Spain to GDP:
(Source: World travel and tourism council, 2016).
Capital investment in Spain’s Travel & Tourism sector:

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(Source: World travel and tourism council, 2016).
With these figures, it can be analysed that soon Spain will be on the peak position in terms of
most favourite place of visitors. In 2016, the most popular destinations that have welcomed the
most international visitors are:
 5,871,536 visitors with Catalonia (4.1% increase from last year)
 5,430,923 visitors travelled to Canary Islands (11% increase was recorded)
 3,743,392 international tourists visited Andalusia welcomed (18.1% increase)
Andalusia has gained the highest number of international tourists in comparison to the other
states and destinations in Spain in 2016 from last year. The Costa del Sol gained 1 million
tourists in May, 11.9% increase was recorded from last year, and it is expected to reach to the

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best levels of over 6 million visitors during the peak season (Crotti & Misrahi, 2015). In 2016,
the numbers of international tourists are from following places where large number of people are
from UK:

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Tourist arrivals in 2016
Country Volume of visitors Increase in %
Belgium 760,463 4.9
Holland 1,171,137 19.1
Italy 1,336,489 6.6
Scandinavian Countries 2,027,151 12.6
UK 5,822,105 16.1
Rest of Europe 1,631,922 15.8
Rest of World 1,410,821 12.9
France 3,753,803 7.6
Germany 3,799,676 5.6
Key Attractions
Top ten places and the activities to do in Spain is Palacio Real, Aqueduct of, Ibiza, Sagrada
Familia, Segovia, Cuenca El Escorial, Mezquita of Cordoba, Running of the Bulls, La Concha,
and Alhambra.
Palacio Real: It is also known as the Royal Palace of Madrid and it is an official residence of
King of Spain but nowadays, it is only used for state ceremonies (Alén, Nicolau, Losada &
Domínguez, 2014).
Running of the Bulls: This is an activity under which dozen of bulls run behind lot of people
and it is included in the adventurous sports which is conducted every year from 6th July to 14th

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July. It is held in Pamplona in Navarra famous for its San Fermín festival (Padilla-Meléndez &
Del-Águila-Obra, 2016).
La Concha: It is one of the best island and also known as the best city beaches in Europe. This
place is also famous for varieties of food and for beautiful and attractive views on beaches.
Aqueduct of Segovia: This place was built by Romans and it is one of the best monuments built
by them. The speciality of this monument is that it was built by 24, 000 huge bricks even without
the usage of cement (Lojo, 2016).
Cuenca: It is a town in Spain built on the steep sides of a mountain and it is a wonderful
example of medieval city and it is situated between Madrid and Valencia.
Ibiza: It is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and it is famous for part destination across the
Europe. In summers, population of this island becomes double. This place has various night
clubs, restaurants and beach bars (Stienmetz & Fesenmaier, 2015).
Sagrada Familia: It is a Roman Catholic Church in Barcelona and it stands in one of most
visited place in Spain (Esteve-Pérez & García-Sánchez, 2016).
Wildcard events
There are certain crucial events which have had an impact over the inbound tourism. Spain is
also known as the country of festivals and fiestas. Every village and city of Spain has its unique
attractions and celebrations. From these events, tourist’s rate becomes double in Spain and some
of them are The Holy Week (Semana Santa), Carnival which is a festival of fun, light and party,
The Fellas of Valencia and in this festival, whole Valencia City celebrates huge party, La

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Tomatina is another great festival celebrated by whole Spain in Bunol. This festival was started
about 70 years ago and in this festival, people throw lot of tomatoes on each other during this
festive period. Other attractions of this festival are parades, parties, fairs, and street markets
(Molinillo & Japutra, 2016). Huge number of tourists come from across the globe to take part in
this festival but limited number of people are allowed to take part in it which is 20, 000 only
which is huge figure but tickets for this festival sold out in flash.
Significance of domestic tourism in Spain
Travel and Tourism is an essential part for every economy and it denotes people travel from one
place to another in the search of new adventures, to explore new places and to experience the
unique cultures, nature and heritage. In the tourism industry, not only international tourists are
included, domestic tourism also has a great impact over this industry (Priego, Rosselló &
Santana-Gallego, 2015). People in Spain also travel from one city to another for experiencing
various unique and attractive festivals and places. However, Europeans devote more than half of
their budget for outings on domestic trips (52 %), mainly during small vacations of 1 to 3 nights
(34 %). The strongest growth was detected in the small outbound vacations (43 %), but in terms
of size, this segment signified only 5 % of all vacation trips of at least one overnight vacation
made by citizens of the EU in 2010 (Voltes-Dorta, Jiménez & Suárez-Alemán, 2016).
Conclusion
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that Spain is one of great and favourite
destination of international tourists as well as of domestic tourists. Impact of tourism is huge
especially over the developing countries and it is also essential part of economic growth in

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developed countries. This essay shows the extent of government over tourism, pull factors of
tourism industry in Spain, Visitors’ statistics in Spain and the key attractions of Spain. These are
major factors responsible for encouraging and attracting huge number of tourists across the
globe. Along with this, this essay also concluded the wildcard events which are conducted in
Spain and the significance of the domestic tourism.

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References
Alén, E., Nicolau, J. L., Losada, N., & Domínguez, T. (2014). Determinant factors of senior
tourists’ length of stay. Annals of Tourism Research, 49, 19-32.
Bujosa, A., Riera, A., & Torres, C. M. (2015). Valuing tourism demand attributes to guide
climate change adaptation measures efficiently: The case of the Spanish domestic travel
market. Tourism Management, 47, 233-239.
Crotti, R., & Misrahi, T. (2015). The travel & tourism competitiveness index 2015: T&T as a
resilient contribution to national development. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness
Report, 2015, 13.
Esteve-Pérez, J., & García-Sánchez, A. (2016). Key Stakeholders in Cruise Traffic: An
Application to Spanish Cruise Ports. In Tourism and Hospitality Management (pp. 81-
93). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Horner, S., & Swarbrooke, J. (2016). Consumer behaviour in tourism. Routledge.
Inversini, A., & Schegg, R. (Eds.). (2016). Information and Communication Technologies in
Tourism 2016: Proceedings of the International Conference in Bilbao, Spain, February
2-5, 2016. Springer.
Lojo, A. (2016). Chinese tourism in Spain: an analysis of the tourism product, attractions and
itineraries offered by chinese travel agencies. Cuadernos de Turismo, (37), 243-268.

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Molinillo, S., & Japutra, A. (2016). Factors influencing domestic tourist attendance at
cultural attractions in Andalusia, Spain. Journal of Destination Marketing &
Management.
Padilla-Meléndez, A., & Del-Águila-Obra, A. R. (2016). Health Tourism: Conceptual
Framework and Insights from the case of a Spanish mature destination. Tourism &
Management Studies, 12(1).
Priego, F. J., Rosselló, J., & Santana-Gallego, M. (2015). The impact of climate change on
domestic tourism: a gravity model for Spain. Regional environmental change, 15(2), 291-
300.
Stienmetz, J. L., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015). Estimating value in Baltimore, Maryland: An
attractions network analysis. Tourism Management, 50, 238-252.
Vila, T. D., Darcy, S., & González, E. A. (2015). Competing for the disability tourism
market–a comparative exploration of the factors of accessible tourism competitiveness in
Spain and Australia. Tourism Management, 47, 261-272.
Voltes-Dorta, A., Jiménez, J. L., & Suárez-Alemán, A. (2016). The impact of ETA’s
dissolution on domestic tourism in Spain. Defence and peace economics, 27(6), 854-870.
World Travel & Tourism Council. (2017). Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2017 Spain.
Accessed on 4th January, 2018 from https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-
impact-research/countries-2017/spain2017.pdf

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