On Thursday, Spain's secretary of state for tourism, Fernando Valdés, appeared before the congressional industry, commerce and tourism committee and stated that Spain can look forward to "a good summer". But he emphasised that "it is not enough just to return to 2019". The objective is "to transform tourism, take advantage of the opportunities linked to the recovery plan to modernise the sector and make it more profitable, more sustainable and of higher quality".
Valdés observed that, for now, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine "is not affecting the intensity of the tourism recovery in Spain". He told members of Congress that "there is a great desire to travel to Spain and neither the war nor inflation are affecting that thirst for visiting us at the moment".
Among various data for the summer, Valdés pointed out that the number of seats on international flights to Spain between May and July are similar to those pre-pandemic. In this regard, he noted that Palma and Ibiza are, respectively, two per cent and five per cent higher than in 2019.
While the figures for 2022 look good, the secretary of state highlighted the challenges facing Spain's tourism: "We must deal with the so-called quadruple concentration of the Spanish tourism model: concentration of supply, very oriented to the sun and beach product; temporary concentration in holiday periods; spatial concentration, linked to some tourist destinations and coastal territories; and concentration of demand, with a high dependence on two specific supplier markets (the UK and Germany)."
"There is a commitment to diversifying spatial concentration, investing not only in the transformation of traditional destinations, but also promoting new ones and building new, richer and more diversified tourist experiences that add value. We are recovering our tourism leadership prior to the pandemic, and we are also building the foundations of leadership for the next 25 years."