GDP tourism added in 2021 a total of 88,546 million euros, still a 42.8% below of the values prior to the pandemic and at levels similar to those of 2003, due to the stoppage of travel until May and the “sudden” stoppage since mid-November due to the expansion of the sixth wave of coronavirus.
With these data, the participation of tourism in the national GDP rose to 7.4%, compared to 5.5% in 2020, but still far from 12.4% in 2019, a record year for the sector in Spain.
This is reflected in the report presented this Thursday by the executive vice president of Exceltur, Jose Luis Zoreda, and the Director of Studies and Research, Oscar Perelli, which advances that in the first quarter of 2022, sales will fall 33.2% over the same period of 2019 (almost 10 points of decrease more than at the end of the fourth quarter) due to this sixth wave.
Despite the combined effect of the triple crisis – health by omicron, energy and supplies – with which 2021 ended, this year the activity will go back as of April and in 2023 the pre-pandemic sales levels will be reached.
Recovery with ups and downs
In 2021 the recovery of the sector has been “partial and full of ups and downs” as a result of the evolution of the covid, although the figures of the disastrous 2020 improve by 36,039 million.
The job, with a decrease of 23.8% over 2019, evolved better than the activity. Exceltur attributes it to the business commitment to the incorporation of personnel to recover normality and to the support of the Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTE).
The “mainstay” of the reactivation was inland tourism, which as of May began to record overnight stay figures similar to those of 2019, with better numbers in campsites, apartments and rural houses, generally located in less crowded environments, while Hotels were hampered by the drop in business trips (8.1%).
The foreign tourism remained weak as a consequence of the restrictions, with a decrease in income of 59.7%, or 29,000 million euros, and 31 million entries of tourists from other countries (compared to 83.7 million in 2019). Germany and France ousted the United Kingdom as the main issuers.
By activity segment, the most affected were face-to-face travel agencies and the lowest decreases were computed in destinations such as golf (-14%) and skiing (-38.1%).
Better vacation destinations than urban ones
In 2021, holiday and inland destinations were more active than urban ones, with better performance in the communities of green and interior Spain (Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria, the two Castillas, Extremadura, Navarra and Aragon), which recorded sales drops of less than 30% compared to 2019.
Those that suffered the most were the territories most dependent on international and long-haul demand (Catalonia, Madrid, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, the Valencian Community and the Basque Country), which closed with decreases of over 40%.
In urban destinations, the large cities with the highest volume of business tourism and long-haul demand, with Barcelona in the lead (-74%), followed by Madrid (-64%) and Seville (-60%), while the best records were for A Coruña, Santander, Alicante, Gijón and Santiago de Compostela (by the Xacobeo).
By the end of this year, Exceltur calculates that the Spanish tourism GDP will reach 135,461 million euros, 87.5% of the levels of prepandemic activity and 47,000 million above the value of the year just closed.
At that level, tourism will once again contribute 10.5% to the Spanish economy, but it will still remain almost two points below the 2019 values (12.4%).
National demand will recover a good part of the lost ground (it will be 2.3% lower than in 2019), while foreign demand will still lose 18.9% over that year, slowed down by the absence of long-haul trips, mostly from Asia.
Concern with the distribution of Next Generation funds
The tourism alliance indicates that the priority in the first half of the year should be take better advantage of recovery, for which the Next Generation Funds of the European Union must play an essential role.
They warn that the first calls for 2021 “have generated a deep concern within the Spanish tourism business “ because a massive territorial distribution was chosen “in projects with little transforming power and in places with a reduced tourist offer”.
They ask to cut the number of municipalities benefited by these funds, “with a very low capacity to generate impacts on the tourism sector as a whole”, to focus on relevant localities, with projects to transform their tourism offer, especially sun and beach destinations. , “with greater structural difficulties and pending challenges for a decade.”