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Agents 'key stakeholders' in Spain and UK's shared mission to rethink the future of tourism

Spain
Dea Jusufi
25 June 2026

Spain and the UK "share a responsibility" to reshape the future of tourism, Spain's tourism chief in London has said, with agents and the wider travel industry set to play a key and direct role in how the destination is managed.

Aigua xelida beach bay with boats in Begur, Costa Brava, Spain
iStock/Eloi Omella

The four pilot destinations under the new Abta partnership are Benidorm, Calvia, Lloret de Mar, and Seville

A new two-year agreement, led by the Spanish Tourist Office (STO) in London, brings together Abta, the Spanish government and four pilot destinations – Benidorm, Calvia, Lloret de Mar and Seville – to trial new approaches to tourism growth using data, technology and "industry collaboration".

Manuel Butler, who is coming to the end of his tenure as the STO's UK Director, said the UK and Spain had a shared responsibility to help define the future of tourism to Spain after the two countries helped shape modern tourism in the 1950s.