Miguel Sanz, director of the Spanish Tourist Office, told TTG@WTM Spain didn’t want to just go back to 2019 and rely on its "world-class" beach holiday offering, stressing the country would instead look to develop and drive tourism in Spain’s regions and lesser-travelled towns and villages.
"I wouldn’t say we want to go back to exactly the same situation we had in 2019," said Sanz. "We want to go to a place where we can deliver sustainable growth for the tourism industry in Spain.
"We want to offer better-quality, more sustainable products. We want tourism to be a force for good, to help develop inland destinations and to support smaller communities. Tourism was a major economic force in Spain between the 1970s and the 1990s. We have to let tourism work its magic again.
"We will certainly get back to the numbers we had in 2019 in terms of the income we get from visitors. But in our strategic plan, we have not set ourselves a specific target to recover visitor numbers. If you don’t need the same number of visitors to achieve this income, the market will say.
"Spain, though, will continue welcome everyone who wants to come to Spain. But we will give them choice to help make a difference if they want to make a difference."
Sanz said while the British market had been "slow" during the summer owing to travel restrictions, it made it "highly probable" pent-up demand would "show up in the winter". "Search data and airline capacity indicates the market is recovering in the UK," he said. "All those people who didn’t travel in the summer may not want to wait until summer 2022 and may take a holiday in the winter."
Spain expects the Canaries to be particularly strong, with Sanz revealing planned air capacity to the islands this winter is currently "around or in excess of 2019". "It’s a secure winter destination," said Sanz. "The prospects are good."
There will be a renewed focus on co-marketing, spanning trade, airlines and tour operators, said Sanz, that would focus on "showing British travellers Spain is open for business". Additionally, Spain’s focus will increasingly turn to increasing its mix of sustainable tourism options.
"We have to use our strength in beach and coastal tourism to generate momentum for other destinations," he said. "People need to know that by travelling to these parts of Spain, they are helping make tourism here more sustainable.
"Over the next few years, this will be our focus. We have to drive quality visitation. It’s not just about increasing spend, it’s about the effect these visitors have on these smaller destinations. People more than ever want to travel sustainably, and it’s our job to help them do that."
