Spain's tourism minister, Reyes Maroto, said on Wednesday that there is an urgency to stop thinking just in the short-term but to think about the future tourism model, which will be more digital and sustainable.
Maroto was speaking at the opening of the tenth Shopping & Quality Tourism Summit. Behind held in virtual fashion, the theme of this year's conference is 'The evolution of the tourism model, an opportunity for Spain. The effort to maintain leadership in the new market'.
The minister explained that the government is seeking to increase air connectivity with Asian markets in order to capture a larger number of tourists with above-average spending power. In this respect, she referred to the opening of a new consulate in Chengdu, China. This has been added to four others in order to be able to facilitate the processing of tourist visas.
The government, she said, intends intensifying promotion campaigns in distant markets that are of importance to Spain's tourism because of spending power.
The focuses of the two-day summit are the economic impact of Covid-19 in Europe and the opportunities arising in the international market for Spain. The conference is analysing: the transformation of the European tourism model; the international positioning and quality of Spain and the positioning of large Spanish cities within the framework of the current international tourism market; the keys to new tourism development - investment, sustainability and technology.
Because of the economic impact of Covid on tourism, the Bank of Spain has recently suggested that there need to be structural changes to the tourism industry, with a differentiated and less congested offer based on higher quality services and consolidation of foreign market diversification, e.g. China, the Scandinavian countries and the USA, as well as on segments such as urban and business tourism, which attracts higher than average spending.