Pedro Fiol, the president of the Balearic Association of Travel Agents, told the Bulletin a few weeks ago that the British have saved the season in the Balearics, now it appears they have done so across Spain. As the Secretary of State for Tourism Rosario Sanchez told the ABTA conference in Magalluf on Monday, the UK market is the most important to Spain.
And it appears that growth in Spain’s tourism industry has slowed down sharply, driven by weaker spending by European and U.S. visitors, and its contribution to this year’s economic growth will be weaker than expected, industry group Exceltur said on Tuesday. Exceltur now expects all tourism-related activity in the world’s second most-visited country to grow by 2.8% in 2025, a revision down from 3.3% growth it estimated in July, and down from a 5.5% expansion last year.
The group estimated that the tourism industry will contribute 13.1% to Spain’s gross domestic product this year, below its initial estimate of 13.5%. “Tourism is no longer the main dynamiser of the Spanish economy,” Exceltur Vice President Oscar Perelli told a news conference, adding that the sector will no longer far exceed Spain’s expected economic growth of 2.6%. The number of international tourists may fall short of the 100 million projected by the World Travel and Tourism Council earlier this year.
Last year, Spain registered a record 94 million tourists. By August this year, 66.8 million tourists had arrived, up 3.9% from the same period a year ago. “I don’t know if we will reach” the 100 million tourists, Spanish Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said, adding though that he did not consider that as a cause for concern since tourist spending was still rising.
Sales across hotels, airlines, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses rose 2.8% during the high summer season, a significant drop from the 6.3% growth recorded in the same time last year. In the fourth quarter, Exceltur expects sales to rise 2%. The slowing growth is linked to weaker spending by tourists from Germany, France, Turkey and the United States, Exceltur said. An increase in tourists from Britain, which accounts for 26.5% of total visitors, as well as from China and Poland, helped offset the trend during the peak season, while the number of domestic tourists remained unchanged.
The Balearics is the sixth autonomous community to have recorded the highest increase in tourism revenue in the third quarter of the year, with a 9.7% increase compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis of July, August and September by the tourism alliance Exceltur.
La Rioja (with an increase of 13.1%), Castile and León (11%) and Castile-La Mancha (10.6%), benefiting from a positioning based on a favourable relationship between cultural and natural resources and lower prices, lead the growth in tourism revenue in the summer.
Next are the Basque Country (10.4%), Cantabria (9.3%) and the sun and beach communities of the Balearic Islands (9.7%), Andalusia (9%), Murcia (8.7%) and the Canary Islands (8.2%).
It has been a positive summer for Spanish tourism companies, with better results than those recorded in 2024. Sales growth was 2.8% in the third quarter: 3.4% in July, 2.7% in August and 2.4% in September. This growth is supported by the transfer to prices of investment policies in product improvement in recent years.
The slowdown in tourist activity has placed the rate of job creation in tourism below that of the rest of the Spanish economy, with 2.1% in the tourism sector and 48,442 new registrations, compared to 2.7% in other sectors, something that has not happened since the pandemic. The disparity in behaviour by international markets in their travel to Spain is increasing, with a growing weakness in Germany, which fell by 4.4% in July and August this year compared to last year in terms of hotel nights. Italy also fell by 4%, Belgium by 3.7%, the Netherlands by 3.6%, Switzerland by 1.3% and France by 0.8%.
Noteworthy is the dynamism of the United Kingdom (up 3.3%), Ireland (5.9%), Poland (24.4%), Portugal (7%) and long-haul destinations in Asia (China 12.5%, Japan 11.3%) and Latin America (6.8%). The United States is slowing down (2% in summer and 1.9% in the cumulative total up to August). The fourth quarter of 2025 points to a continued slowdown in the growth rate of sales in Spain by tourism companies to 2%, down from 2.8% in the third quarter, according to the Exceltur Business Confidence Survey closed on 1 October.
This reflects the effect of the complex international geo-economic scenario on tourism spending by families and businesses, with a particular impact on some key markets for Spain, such as Germany, France, Italy, the United States and the domestic market itself. According to Exceltur, there will be a general moderation in business expectations by destination for the last quarter of the year. For the Balearic Islands, Exceltur forecasts sales growth of 0.6% in the fourth quarter.
EXCELTUR, Alianza para la Excelencia Turística (Alliance for Excellency in Tourism), is a non-profit group formed by the Chairmen of the 32 leading Spanish tourist groups from the following sectors: airlines, cruises, hotels, travel agencies, tour operators, credit cards, rent-a-car, tourist hospitals, and GDSs. EXCELTUR was founded at the end of 2001, with the following main goals:To raise awareness and promote better knowledge and understanding of the socioeconomic importance of tourism, the job creation capacity, and its multiplier effects on the Spanish economy.
To promote and encourage the highest degree of competitiveness for the Spanish tourism industry to be able to consolidate its leadership and continuous growth in the most sustainable manner.
The approximate turnover of all above firms exceeded 30 billion Euros in 2024 with a labor force of over 220.000 employees, and direct investments in more than 40 countries worldwide. The turnover of EXCELTUR’s members approximately represents 4% of Spain’s GDP.