Date Published: 16/10/2019
ARCHIVED - No-deal Brexit could cost the Spanish tourism sector 1,400 million euros in 14 months
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Brexit is one of various dark clouds on the horizon of the Spanish tourism sector
Even as Boris Johnson attempts to secure a last-minute Brexit deal which can be accepted both by the EU and by the House of Commons the Spanish tourism authorities are evaluating the possible consequences of a “hard” Brexit on the sector, and the latest report published by Exceltur anticipates an immediate negative effect amounting to 1,407 million euros.
That figure relates to the amount of “lost” tourist spending by visitors from the UK over the next 14 months, until the end of 2020, and to put it into context it equates to 7.83 per cent of the amount spent by British visitors in Spain during the whole of 2018. During last year UK tourists to this country spent 2.8 per cent more than in 2017 with the total reaching 17,976 million euros (20 per cent of the figure for all foreign tourists) but Exceltur report that in the summer of 2019 a negative Brexit effect has already been felt, with spending by the British down by 3 per cent.
This has been the case especially in the hotel sector, where a fall of 4.4 per cent is reported, and in the Canaries (-7.2 per cent).
Brexit is just one of a number of factors making this a difficult time for the international tourism sector in Spain, with the future looking uncertain in the light of the collapse of package tour operator Thomas Cook, the slowdown in economic growth throughout Europe, increased competition from Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey and, most recently, the return of tension and uncertainty to Catalunya, the most important international tourism region in Spain last year with spending of over 20,000 million euros.
In the light of all these factors Exceltur have revised their growth forecast in the tourism sector as a whole for 2019, taking it down from 1.6 per cent to 1.4 per cent. This is largely due to the concerns over international tourism (the domestic market remains strong), with demand from most of the major markets having fallen: this is the case, for example, of Germany (12 per cent fewer nights in hotels) and Scandinavia (9 per cent down by the same measure), while the number of nights spent in Spanish hotels by visitors from the UK has dropped by only 0.9 per cent).
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