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The great results that the tourism sector has presented up to the month of September have provided a clear picture of how this year will end. The regional minister of tourism, Arturo Bernal, has just issued his prognosis, stating that “2024 will close as the best year in history for Andalusian tourism". In his forecast, he highlighted milestones in employment, with peaks of up to 480,000 workers; in revenue, with expectations of it reaching 29.5 billion euros; and in tourism, which predicts a moderate increase up to 35 million visitors.
Bernal supports these numbers with declarations that “the region has already overcome seasonality,” given the strong growth experienced outside the high season and the more moderate summer increase. On top of that, he notes the better distribution of the tourist flow in the territory, with 5% more municipalities receiving a share of the traveller load. “The regional ministry’s strategy of moving towards a more sustainable model has already brought strong results,” said Bernal, while addressing the official figures from the first nine months of the year and the aim to move towards tourism that doesn't depend on the season.
He further explains that, last summer, the number of tourists grew by 4.2%, reaching 28.9 million, in moderate comparison to the 7% increase of the previous year. In contrast, the region recorded an increase of 10% in the first quarter and 5% in the second quarter - a figure Bernal says demonstrates that “we have recovered the trend of moderate growth. Our objective is to increase the profit that this product has to offer our society.” He believes that history is being made: by September, Andalucía had received 19.63 billion in revenue generated by the tourism industry alone, reflecting a 7.8% real-term increase compared to the first nine months of 2023.
“Andalucía is heading towards a more sustainable and year-round tourism, the result of a solid alliance with the sector that works towards an industry committed to sustainability in its three variables: environmental, economic and social,” said the minister. With an employment increase of 2.8% and 3.4%, in 2023 and 2019 respectively, “Andalucía is the community that creates more employment until August,” said the minister. By September 2024, there had been 438,700 employees on average. Bernal said that the level of employee income has also improved by 7% and the temporary employment rate has fallen to its lowest figure in Andalusian history, sharply decreasing to 23%, when in 2019 it stood at 40%.
The region has also made a leap forward in attracting tourists with greater spending capacity, which has led to revenues reaching 19.63 billion euros in the first nine months of the year. This represents a growth of 2.2 billion more than the numbers recorded during the same period last year. Involved in this growth is the increase of 20.6% in foreign tourism spending, four points above the national average. The positive response from foreign markets has led to 10.8 million tourists from abroad, 12% more than in 2023. With this, the region reaches a 14.6% share of Spain’s total number of foreign visitors.
But key to this remarkable increase in revenue has been the consistent effort to attract distant markets such as Asia, with a 133% growth; the United States, with a 44% increase; and closer markets in Europe, such as the Netherlands, with a 55% increase, and Italy and Portugal, with almost 40% more than last year. Of course, this expansion has also been complemented by the region’s two main markets - the United Kingdom and Germany, the former of which represents 30% of international visitors, with a 6.6% increase in visitors and an even higher increase in daily spending.
The minister justifies this progress by saying that “our promotion campaigns are working and attracting the type of tourist that has greater spending capacity. The region has managed to attract the tourist we have been looking for. We have carried out more than 600 promotional campaigns in Europe, but the turning point has been Andalusian Crush, which, besides being granted awards that have never before been achieved by a campaign, has covered the objectives we had set ourselves.”
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