Rosario Sánchez Grau: FITUR is the tourism industry's benchmark event and its largest platform.

How has the Spanish tourism industry performed in the first months of 2025 and what are your forecasts for this year as a whole?

If 2024 improved on 2023, which had already been a very good year, 2025 has started even better. In the first two months of this year, total spending by international tourists exceeded 14.3 billion euros, an increase of 8.3% compared to the same period in 2024.  While the number of visitors, in the same period, grew by 6.9%. Therefore, we continue to see an increase in tourism expenditure over and above what we see in the number of international tourists.

As for the recent Easter Week, while awaiting definitive data, we have indicators that allow us to be optimistic. This year Easter Week fell in April, whereas in 2024 it was in March. Therefore, we have to refer to the forecasts for March and April 2025, to compare them with the same period in 2024. Initial assessments suggest that Spain has once again broken the record for spending and international tourist arrivals this Easter.

Thus, according to these estimates, in March and April 2025, spending by international tourists will exceed 20 billion euros, which is 13% more than in 2024. And we will reach a total of 15 million international tourists, 9% more than in the same period last year. 

What do these figures mean for employment in the industry?

This good performance of tourism is also reflected in their employment data. Tourism employment grew by almost 25,000 people last March; a month which, unlike in 2024, was not improved by the effect of Easter. Despite this, however, it has continued to show positive data. In total, at the end of March we had more than 2.7 million Social Security affiliates in the tourism industry: another absolute record for the month.

Positive data not only from a quantitative but also from a qualitative point of view, because in March, the number of employees in the industry increased again and now represents almost 82% of employed workers. And this growth in employment also comes hand in hand with an improvement in the stability of tourism employment, according to the latest EPA data, corresponding to the last quarter of last year.

What projects and actions does the government plan to further boost tourism and which tourism niches or segments will be prioritised?

If we look at the behaviour of tourism in a more medium-term perspective, we can see how we are making progress towards some of our main objectives, such as diversification, deconcentration and deseasonalisation of tourism. In this sense, comparing the data for 2024 with those for 2018, before the pandemic, we can see how the growth in the number of visitors and tourist spending is now higher in the months we consider to be the mid and low season (from October to May) than in the high season. In other words, we are filling more of the off-peak periods and spreading tourism more evenly throughout the year.

On the other hand, if we compare, for example, the evolution of tourist spending between these two years, we can see how spending grew more proportionally in the inland and northern communities than in the main tourist regions of the country.

And likewise, we are observing that tourist spending is continuing to grow at a faster rate than the number of visitors. In other words, we are dealing with a more qualitative growth. In short, the data already point to a trend towards the deconcentration of tourism, to deseasonalisation and diversification, and to a model with greater added value, in line with the commitment we are making to transforming the tourism model.

The Spanish Government, through the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, is driving this transformation with the largest ever investment in public resources for the tourism industry: 3.4 billion euros. The policies and transformations the industry needs are already under way through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The machinery is in motion because hundreds of projects are being implemented right now throughout Spain. 

What are the specific objectives of these projects?

Projects to have a better tourism model, more modern, more innovative, more sustainable, more digitalised, more diversified and more adapted to the current reality and needs of both tourists and residents. This is the line of our Spain's 2030 Tourism Strategy on which we have been working, which we will continue to enrich with the contribution of all the agents, and with which we want to move forward into the future so that Spain continues to be the tourism model to imitate, this time for its sustainability, which is what will guarantee its future and its competitiveness. 

In your opinion, how important is a trade fair like FITUR for boosting the industry?

FITUR is the tourism industry's benchmark event and its largest platform. It is a unique opportunity. And it is also a unique opportunity for Spain to demonstrate its leadership in the industry, to show everything that is being done to consolidate and strengthen this leadership.

And even more important than this, it is an opportunity for the Spanish tourism industry to show how it is securing its future: by undertaking a major transformation and committing to sustainable and responsible tourism, focused on a triple sustainability: environmental, social and economic.