The new tourism products with which Spain is diversifying its offer are being well received by the German public. These products are more sophisticated and offer added value, such as city breaks, cultural, sports and nature tourism, as explained by the Minister for Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda, Álvaro Nadal, at a press briefing following his visit to the ITB international travel trade show in Berlin.
This type of reservation has grown by more than 10% this season by German tourists.
The minister, accompanied by the State Secretary for Tourism, Matilde Asián, and the Director-General of Turespaña, Manuel Butler, travelled around the trade fair on Wednesday morning and visited several stands representing Spanish regional governments and the Turespaña stand. With a surface area of 649 square metres, this stand hosts 12 regions and 14 Spanish hotel companies and organisations, travel agencies and transport companies. The minister also saw firsthand what Spanish technology start-ups are doing in relation to tourism.
Álvaro Nadal also attended a lunch with the country’s main tour operators and held meetings with the Chair of the TUI Group, the leading global tour operator, and with the Thomas Cook Group, the leading tour operator in the British market.
New tourist profile
Despite the buoyant period being enjoyed by the tourism sector, it is facing some major challenges including increasingly demanding and critical tourists. In the case of German visitors, who choose Spain as their main tourist destination, this has been characterised to date by its highly seasonal nature (fundamentally from July to September) and its geographic concentration.
The aim, according to the minister, is to address those tourists who not only want sun and beach, but rather a more sophisticated visitor profile, with higher added value, and more interested in cultural tourism, city breaks, shopping tourism, museums, food and wine tourism and nightlife.
To achieve this, Spain must offer new products based on quality and variety in its offer. Álvaro Nadal pointed out that Spain will remain committed to its renewal of mature sun and beach destinations, since they enjoy a very good reputation in the German market, but highlighted that there are destinations inland with a very attractive offer for this new tourist profile.
German tourism
Germany is the third-largest emitting market for inbound tourists to Spain in terms of the number of arrivals, behind only the United Kingdom and France, and the second-largest market in terms of spending. In 2016, close to 11.2 million German tourists visited Spain, with a market share of 14.8%. Their total spend amounted to 11.08 billion euros, accounting for 14.3% of the total. The average spend per person and per day also rose to 990 and 118 euros, respectively.
The country also stands in second place in terms of overnight hotel stays, with 22.8% of the total, In 2016, growth was posted both in terms of tourist flows (up 6.4%), spending (up 5.3%) and in overnight hotel stays (up 6.6%).
