Tourism in Spain

Based on the statistics compiled as part of the Frontier Tourist Movement Survey (FRONTUR), the number of tourists visiting Spain grew by one million (+1.7%) last year from 58.2 million to 59.2 million, the Spanish Tourism ministry revealed today.

The tourism industry has been growing year by year! Will it grow also in the future?

2006: France is the highest rank in tourism 2006 with 79 million tourists and a revenue of $46.3 billion, followed by Spain with 58 millions and a revenue of $51.1 billion.   

For business-oriented people the following data may be especially relevant:

• 21.271 hotels and similar establishments made a turnover of 16.785.758€.
• 263.829 cafés, bars and restaurants made a turnover of 40.799.996€.
• 72.9% of all tourists enter Spain by air.
• 43% of all employees in the tourism industry work in in cafés, bars, or restaurants.

A critical view

According to estimated data only 20% of all Spaniards speak fluent English. In Barcelona it’s estimated on a level of 30%. Compared with English speaking people in most of the European’s country this percentage is considerably low. In an average 47% of North Europeans speak English. English is the common norm for every day communication in all international businesses, especially in the tourism sector, and in the expat’s communities. Has Spain got some catching up to do?

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