PICTE focuses on ten clear programmes:
—The Programme for quality in tourist destinations
—The Programme for quality in tourist products
—The Programme for quality in business sectors
—The Programme for quality training
—The Programme for R&D
—The Programme for the internationalisation of Spain’s tourist industry
—The Programme for international co-operation
—The Programme for statistic and economic analysis
—The Programme for promotion
—The Programme for support in marketing
The «Programme for quality in tourist destinations» gives the clearest view of the initiatives taken at various tourist destinations. It includes the «Plans for Excellence in Tourism», which deal with the recovery and regeneration of developed resorts, as well as the «Plans for the Activation of Tourism», which economically stimulate and boost emerging tourist destinations. The Programme also includes «Comprehensive management models for tourist destinations», which co-ordinate efforts in the various commercial sub-sectors so as to achieve a homogeneous standard of quality throughout a particular tourist destination. This year, 22 Plans for Excellence and Activation have been approved, reflecting investments of 53.1 million euros and bringing the total number of plans approved since 2000 to 88, in a campaign which has cost 172.2 million euros.
«The Programme for quality in tourist products», works on the provision of products for the tourist sector, with the aim of diversifying Spanish tourism and reducing seasonality.
Sports holidays: Spain’s climate, its nearly 5,000 kilometres of coastline and its mountainous topography make it a privileged destination for the practice of sporting activities. Water sports such as sailing (mostly in the Mediterranean Sea), sport fishing, diving and windsurfing have been practiced fanatically for many years in Spain. The great contrasts of its rural areas are conducive to sports such as trekking, rock climbing, descending rivers, and air sports.
Mention should be made of golf and skiing, due to the size of the infrastructure catering for them. Golf can be played all year round thanks to over 200 courses, most of which with 18 holes, offering in total over half a million hours of playing time. From the Pyrenees to the Sierra Nevada in Andalucía, ski resorts around Spain boast great technical quality and perfect hotel and leisure infrastructures.
Cultural tourism: Spain is made up of a combination of cultures. This diversity is reflected in its distinct artistic currents. Spain houses some of the best museums in the world such as the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Picasso Museum and the Guggenheim Bilbao.
This diversity and contrast which makes up the character of Spain is also seen in its cities. In Spain, one can find both major metropolis such as Barcelona and Madrid, as well as numerous smaller cities which have been declared World Heritage Sites. In order to encourage this sort of tourism, the «Plan for the Promotion of Cultural and Linguistic Tourism» was put into practice in 2002, involving an investment of 70 million euros in 2002-2004. The objective of this plan has been to strengthen the cultural attractions and convert them into a tourist product.
Business tourism in Spain generated revenue of over 2,350 million euros in 2002 from the 12,653 business meetings which over 2,500,000 visitors attended. The country is the fifth most popular destination in the world for congresses and meetings, while Barcelona is the city in the world which has hosted the most congresses, totalling 1,363 in 2002.
Health tourism is on the rise, with a seemingly unstoppable increase in demand for beauty treatment and relaxation. In 2002 the combination of centres dedicated to tourism focusing on health and beauty generated a business worth 606 million euros, 18% more than a year earlier.
Currently, Spain boasts 130 health resorts, 22 thalassotherapy centres, 24 health and beauty complexes and 50 hotels with their own Spas, most of which are operated by large multinationals. Spahotels provide a good way to combat the seasonality of Spanish tourism. Furthermore, some of the hotels have started to compete with health resorts and thalassotherapy centres by mixing business tourism with health tourism to generate more added valued and distinguish themselves from the competition.
Rural tourism began in the nineties and is growing year by year. In 2002 the number of stays in establishments of this sector grew 12.2%. Rural tourism facilities are largely used by Spanish tourists but 2002 has seen a considerable growth in foreign visitors.
The clear increase in holiday homes is having a notable effect on the economy. They are an example of trends in tourism which obviously contribute to easing seasonality, developing population centres and attending to new tendencies related to the different work habits and ways of enjoying one’s leisure time. According to the World Tourism Organisation, in the next five years, between 800,000 and 1.7 million European families will buy their second home in Spain, looking for optimum conditions for tourism, a good climate, security, political stability, modern infrastructure and an unbeatable quality of life.
Development of tourist accommodation
In 2002, hotel accommodation grew 4.4% in number of available rooms but less rapidly in terms of establishments, which grew at 2.3 %. This was due to a slight increase in the average size of hotels. Growth has been especially accentuated in the Autonomous Community of Valencia, where the number of rooms available increased 9.5% in 2002, while the number of hotels rose 4%. Five Autonomous Communities provide the bulk of hotel accommodation.They are the Balearic Islands with 22.1%, Catalonia with 18.8%, Andalucía with 15.1%, the Canary Islands with 10.9% and Valencia with 7.8% of the total. Hotel accommodation in the Balearic Islands and the Canaries is characteristically centred on larger establishments, with the average hotel offering 321 and 318 rooms respectively. The hotel industry is currently undergoing a very active phase. Not only is it consolidating through mergers and acquisitions but is also growing via the rapid construction of new hotels. In the proximities of Madrid’s airport, five large hotels have been built in just seven months. Hotel Chain Vincci plans to open eight new establishments by 2005. Sol Meliá has formed a joint venture with Rank Group, the owner of the Hard Rock brand, to open hotels under the same name. The first hotel is planned for Chicago, but further ones are expected to be opened in Madrid and Barcelona. Tourist apartments are mostly used by foreign tourists. This style of holiday is centred on the Canaries, where 58% of nights at apartments were spent, as well as the Balearic Islands, which host 14% of stays in this type of accommodation. The average length of stay is 9.15 days, much more than the average 3.8 days spent at hotels.
Foreign demand for housing in Spain has been increasing continuously over the last few years, although it has been in the first quarter of 2003 when it has really taken off. Accumulated foreign investment in the Spanish property market has seen outstanding growth, rising 107% in the last four years to over 6,000 million euros in 2002, from 2,908 million in 1999. Holiday homes represent 34.8% of all housing under construction. Alicante and Malaga are the zones with the most concentration of holiday homes, cornering 44% of the market.
Stays at campsites in Spain grew 1.9% in 2002. Users of campsites are almost equally divided between nationals and foreigners, with 52% of Spaniards and 48% of foreigners staying at domestic campsites, which are mainly concentrated around Catalonia and the rest of the Mediterranean coast.
Rural tourism accommodation is distributed around the country in a very different way to hotels or apartments. Most of it is located not on the coast but inland and to a large extent in the north, particularly in the autonomous communities on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and in the Pyrenees
Spain's number one industry is tourism. 46 million tourists visited last year more than the 40 million total population. Spain's goal: to increase tourism to 100 million visitors by the year 2005. This would mean more than 2 visitors for every citizen each year. Think of the cultural impact this will have on the Spaniards. Many Spaniards believe they are up to the task. Aznar's government has formed a national tourism council to market Spain overseas, along with an inter-ministry commission that coordinates development efforts, and another national agency that links central and regional governments. The regional tourism boards form the vanguard of the new campaign.
Of all the countries in the world, Spain is second only to the United States of America in tourism and competes each year with France for coveted second place global tourist destination. Spain's gross tourist income (11% of GNP) is more half of the dollar income of all the 50 United States (Florida, Hawaii, New York, California, Texas etc.) This is a significant accomplishment for a country which is just bigger than the state of California. Tourism has turned the entire Spanish economy around.
As recently as 25 years ago, the Balearic Islands were among the poorest regions in Europe, their people eking out a living from subsistence farming and the small pottery industry. But now the people of the archipelago have one of the nation's highest per-capita income. While Spain has always attracted visitors to its shores, the Balearics helped usher in the era of "sun and sand" tourism. The Balearic Islands' Minister of Tourism José María González credits the islands' entrepreneurs with the success. "The birth of the tourism industry was inevitable, because there is an established base of businesspeople here who are willing to start enterprises," he says. The Islands, especially the largest -Mallorca- are home to Spain's largest hotel chains, which have expanded to other regions within Spain and abroad.
Spain's "sun and sand" golden formula draws millions to her beaches and islands. But unfortunately landlocked Extremadura only receives 1% of the nations tourist income inspite of the fact that Badajoz is Spain's largest boarder town with Portugal located on recently completed Madrid-Lisbon highway. The worst tourism problem is that Extremadura is unheard of internationally. The land which sent out daring discoverers to the New World is today undiscovered by the rest of the world.
The forgotten "Land of the Conquistadors" has been largely unsuccessful in drawing visitors to her world-class tourist attractions such as the Roman archeological treasures in Mérida, the medieval city of Cáceres, one of the world's finest wildlife refuges at Montfrague, not to mention all the colorful local traditions, festivals, Holy Week celebrations and Badajoz carnival. The greatest economic impediment Extremadura faces is that it is virtually unheard of outside of Spain.
Extremadura's traditional sluggish agrarian culture had been one of the most impoverished in Spain. A Spanish documentary film of the Hurdes mountains villages in northern Cáceres entitled "A Land without Bread" captured the desperate plight of the region. Remote villages were isolated and could only be reached on horseback as late as in the 1970's
Spain's general economic boon and European Union's convergence funding has brought needed economic relief to Extremadura. Today with a much improved network of national roads, with the large scale construction of modern apartments building, and with nationally funded public and university education. Extremadurans now enjoy technological and social benefits on a par with the rest of western Europe. Nevertheless Extremadurans still suffer from almost one-third unemployment and are just learning how to market their cultural and historic treasures to the rest of the world.
1. A Short History of Spain - Conquistador Magazine, 2000.
2. Spain Magazine, 2000, №2.
3. The World Factbook – Spain, NY, 2007.