Tourism is heading towards a historic year due to the boom in demand from domestic and foreign travelers and strong tourism. increased prices Despite the fact that headline inflation has begun to be brought under control. Having already completed a recovery in activity levels before the pandemic last year, the industry is accelerating further towards all-time highs in jobs, income and employment.
HE tourism GDP will climb throughout the year The record exceeding 178,800 million euros, According to the new forecasts revised upwards by the company, 12% growth over last year and 13.6% more than 2019 pre-Covid levels. excellent tour, the lobby that brings together the thirty largest companies in the industry (including Meliá, NH, Iberia, Globalia, Riu and Amadeus). Some records that will reinforce tourism as a national economic engine will increase its contribution to 12.6% of Spain’s overall GDP, equating it to its pre-covid weight.
Strong growth in tourist activity was largely supported by an increase in corporate rates generally. In fact, the sector’s GDP is still slightly below pre-pandemic levels in real terms when the impact of the price increase is discounted. Without the impact of rate increase, tourism GDP still 1% lower than in 2019According to Exceltur study service.
After overcoming the complete stoppage of travel due to the pandemic, the self-created business of Spanish tourists was the main support of the recovery, but now it is the demand of international travelers that is accelerating the most and forms the basis of the current situation. reactivation. Industry and Government forecast foreign tourist arrivals to hit an all-time high this year, surpassing the international record of 83.7 million arrivals reached in 2019 before the covid disaster.
prices and margins
Tourism companies are confirming significant increases in their turnover (+19.6%) thanks to the recovery in activity and price increases that started in the middle of the inflation wave months ago, pushing rates well above 2019 levels in almost all sub-sectors; +17.4% in tourist packages, +15.2% in restaurants… pre-covid inflation is just above 0.6% in air transportation).
ANDThe Spanish hotel industry has already saved two full years with month-to-month price increases, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The accommodation sector, on the other hand, expects that the increases will continue in the coming months and that summer will be reached with record rates due to the historical demand expected for the high season.
Price increases for the tourist lobby are responding to the increase in demand, the need to respond to increased costs due to inflation, and also the marketing of higher quality and more value-added products after heavy investments in Turkey. While repositioning in higher ranges, companies also need to pay off their accumulated debts during the pandemic process.
Despite improved sales and higher prices, and demand continues to grow, Exceltur warns that this boom has not translated into increased profitability for many companies. Because these increases are not fully reflected in the prices. “The biggest challenge for companies in the industry right now is to recover their profit margins,” he stressed. Jose Luis Zoreda, Vice President of Exceltur, at a press conference
According to industry lobby estimates, energy costs and other materials undertaken by tourism companies have increased by more than 30% in the last two years, salary costs by 15% and financial costs by 21%. year.
“The defense of margins is positioned as one of the keys to improving the results from the scenario of sharp increase in costs for Spanish tourism companies over the past two years,” Exceltur said in its latest quarterly report. “One of the biggest concerns about the future is how to deal with these cost levels in a scenario where demand may start to weakenwarns the association.