Tourism in Spain: An Analysis of Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the tourism industry in Spain. It begins with an overview of the industry's economic contribution, highlighting its significance to the country's GDP and its ranking as a top international holiday destination. A situational analysis using PESTLE framework explores the macro-environmental factors influencing the industry, including political stability, economic conditions, social and cultural aspects, technological advancements, legal frameworks, and environmental factors. The report further delves into the visitor market, tourism products, supply and demand dynamics, tourist characteristics, and tourist experiences, including trends like solo travel, spa and wellness holidays, and sustainable tourism. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the factors that make Spain a popular destination and its potential for future growth. The report is supported by relevant references, including books, journals, and online sources.

Tourism in Spain

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview of tourism in Spain.....................................................................................................3
Situational analysis......................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tourism can be defined as the collection of industries, services, activities which provides
travelling experience to people. It involves transportation, accommodations, entertainment,
hospitality services, adventurous services etc (Mason, 2015.). The present project report is about
tourism in Spain. It will cover the situational analysis of the country in relation to tourism which
will highlight the points such as visitor market, tourists products, supply and demand,
characteristics of tourists, tourists experience, tourism trends.
MAIN BODY
Overview of tourism in Spain
Tourism industry in Spain is one of the significant contributor to country's economy and
accounts for 10-11% GPD. It is also ranked as number one international holiday destination by
The TourismRank. The country has been recognised as the third largest heritage destination by
UNESCO (Facts on Spain, 2019). Country's tourism industry is highly successful because its
cheap, its heritage cities, it's attracting culture. Its beaches are considered amongst the best
beaches in Europe.
Figure 1: Ranking by international tourist travellers
(Source : The economic impact of the tourism industry in Spain, 2014)

Situational analysis
Situational analysis refers to the process of assessing the macro environmental factors
such as political, technological, legal. It also assesses the condition of market, strengths,
weaknesses of the industry. Below is the situational analysis of tourism industry in Spain:
PESTLE Analysis :
Macro environmental factors Impact
Political The stability in the political condition attract
the people toward the tourism.
 The parliamentary monarchy
government provide the ample
opportunity to the tourism industry to
established their business and earn
profit (Han and Hyun, 2015).
Economical The stable economy of the country help in
expanding the business of tourism industry.
 The purchasing power of Spain
population increasing the profit of the
tourism industry. They are more
interested in spending their money in
travel and tourism sector.
Social The tourism industry in Spain share their
tradition and values to different visitors of
various country.
 The culture and tradition of Spain
attract the visitors toward Spain and
expand the business of tourism industry
(Sigala, ,2017).

Technological The advance technology provides the various
method and channel to promote the tourism
sector in the country and attract the customer.
 The use of social media, emails and
advertisement help to attract the mass
population toward the tourism business.
 The latest technology provide the
information about the tourism industry
in different nation like the travel plans
through their own web page or the
social media.
Legal The government enforces the various rules and
regulation to the tourism industry like the
safety act, employment act etc. which help the
tourism sector in attracting the customer.
 The Spain government provide subsidy
to the tourism industry to enhance their
business in different nations.
Environmental The environment of Spain also affect the
business of tourism industry in the country.
 The change in climate, natural disaster,
water availability make a huge impact
on the tourism industry. It decreases
their profit and the range of visitors in
Spain.
 Europe is the most common destination
of the world. The climate of the Europe
attract the population and increasing the

no. of visitors in Europe.
Strengths
 Quickest and largest growing industry
in Spain.
 Offers the cheapest travelling and
tourism services to people
 Characterised by ancient sites and rich
heritage.
 Cultural diversity (Kotler and et.al.,
2017)
 Creates large employment
Weaknesses
 Language barriers for international
tourists.
 Unattractive marketing strategies as
compared to other tourist destination in
Europe.
Opportunities
 Demographic changes
 Potential for cultural tourism
 Increasing income level in developing
countries is an opportunity for Spain
tourism.
Threats
 Rigorous competition at global level.
 Climate issues
 visa restrictions
Visitor market : The visitor market in Spain is very large. The tourism industry are the 3rd
largest contributor of GDP in Spain economy. Visitor visits the Spain in large amount. The most
common destination of Spain are Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Toledo, Valencia, Seville,
Salamanca etc. The Spanish market rank 13th in the global market for international tourism
expenditure. The regional and seasonal spread was good in tourism sector of Spain. Spending
percentage from the holiday trip was 42 % in Spain. The business trip also increase the number
of visitors or visitor market in Spain (Spain sets new foreign tourist arrival record for sixth
consecutive year.2019).
Tourism product : Spain tourism industry provided the different tourism product to the visitors
like the hotel rooms, food facility, travel tour, adventurous activities, pool parties, cultural

program meet etc. to the visitors and entertain them. The adventurous activity attract the young
generation toward the tourism industry. The cultural program connect the visitors to the culture
of the Spain and also attract the senior citizens. They also provide the fishing and hunting
activities to the visitors, so they can enjoy their trip.
Supply and demand : Demand and supply of products and leisure related services of hospitality
and tourism industry is based on number of factors such as social, economical, exchange rates,
government regulation, tax policy, climatic conditions, political stability, advertisements, number
of suppliers of hospitality services in the market etc.
The political and economic conditions of Spain are very stable, along with this, the
country does not impose of lot of restriction related to visa. These conditions have affected the
demand of tourism services in the country and also because of popularity of tourism, number of
suppliers of travel & hospitality services has increased.
Figure 2 : Number of accommodation services in Spain
(Source : Number of accommodation services in Spain from 2008 to 2017)
It can be seen that due to the increase in the number of tourists in Spain over the few
years, accommodation business has bloomed in the country. Like it is being continuously
increasing from the year 2007 to 2017.

Tourist characteristics : Tourists are of different types and the purpose of their holidaying is
also different. There are tourists who prefers leisure activities, then there are food travellers who
travels the world for the purpose of exploring the food cultures of different countries. One new
type of tourism is becoming that is medical tourism in which people travel different countries for
fitness and medical purpose. Spain hosts such tourists as well by offering excellent environment
and medical facilities to such tourists.
Sports and recreation tourists are those who travels the country for the purpose of
watching big sport tournaments such as football sport events etc. Some visited the country for the
purpose of exploring the diversified and rich culture of Spain. Country also offers adventurous
services to the people who are adventurous in character.
Figure 2: Number of international tourists in Spain
(Source : International tourism, number of arrivals, 2019)

Experiences of Tourists: Tourists have shared good and pleasant holiday memories regarding
their holidays in the country. Most of the tourists were mesmerised Flamenco which is nation's
highly popular art form. It is one of the thing which is their in the visiting and experiencing list
every tourists that visits Spain.
Las Fellas which is recognised as intangible cultural humanity heritage list by UNESCO
in 2016 is one of the attraction point for the visitors. Many tourist have shared experiences
regarding partying in the biggest nightclub across the world. Privilege nightclub which can host
an imaginable number of people that is 10000 guest at one time, was amongst the best
experiences of the tourists.
Tourism trends : There are different tourism trends that have emerged lately. Most common
trends are :
 solo travelling is becoming popular in which people travel alone without any companion
as opposed to traditional travelling method where families used to travel together (Smith,
2015).
 Spa and wellness holiday is another travelling trend in Spain. For example, Granada's
Catalunya and Alpujarras region are immensely famous for spas towns. Gran Islands in
the country is highly renowned for its spa hotels and have a sound international customer
base.
 Sustainable tourism is another emerging trend in tourism industry where people have
prefers Eco-friendly holidaying. Spain offers many such options such as campsites, rural
lodging services to travellers which provides Eco-friendly accommodation services as an
alternative to big hotels. Country comprises 4 % of its area in the form of national parks

for improving and promoting sustainable tourism (Spain's Top Travel Trends For 2017,
2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above project report, it can be concluded that tourism industry of Spain is one
of the highly generating revenue industry that contributes significantly to the GDP of the
company. It was observed in the report that Spain is amongst the most desirable holidaying
destinations and it attracts billions of people from every corner of the world. The reasons which
makes the Spain, a favourite destination is its inexpensive accommodation and travelling
facilities, its highly rich and ancient culture, world famous beaches, its soothing climatic
conditions, sustainable tourism facilities and most importantly, its welcoming citizens. In the
report, a situational analysis was conducted which threw lights on its political conditions which
are stable, its economical and legal environment that favours the tourism industry.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Han, H. and Hyun, S. S., 2015. Customer retention in the medical tourism industry: Impact of
quality, satisfaction, trust, and price reasonableness. Tourism Management. 46. pp.20-29.
Kotler, P and et.al., 2017. Marketing for hospitality and tourism.
Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.
Sigala, M., 2017. Collaborative commerce in tourism: implications for research and
industry. Current Issues in Tourism. 20(4). pp.346-355.
Smith, M. K., 2015. Issues in cultural tourism studies. Routledge.
Online
Spain's Top Travel Trends For 2017. 2016. [Online]. Available through
<https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/spains-top-travel-trends-for-2017/>
The economic impact of the tourism industry in Spain. 2014. [Online]. Available through
<http://www.caixabankresearch.com/en/1405im-d4-es>
Number of accommodation services in Spain from 2008 to 2017. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/613470/number-of-travel-accommodation-
establishments-spain/>
Facts on Spain. 2019. [Online]. Available through <https://www.seville-traveller.com/facts-on-
spain/>
Spain sets new foreign tourist arrival record for sixth consecutive year.2019. [Online]. Available
through <https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/01/inenglish/1549014848_149720.html>
International tourism, number of arrivals. 2019. [Online]. Available through
<https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL>