Summary

Although Spain's tourism economy is strong, the distribution of tourists is concentrated largely in the Mediterranean provinces and the Balearic and Canary Islands. The tourist authorities and Government are seeking to encourage the northern provinces to develop a tourism product based on the marketing concept of 'Espana Verde' (Green Spain), in order to provide an alternative cultural and lifestyle experience in contrast to the dominant sun, sea and sand image. Tourists from Germany and the UK provide some 53.6% of all international tourist arrivals, which helps to contribute to the positive balance of payments of Ptas4.61 billion (€27.7 million in 2000).

According to 2001 research, the attractions market in terms of visitor numbers and preferences is dominated by the historical and cultural sector (76.2%), followed by natural attractions (58.3%) and theme parks/amusement parks (37.1%). International confidence in investing in the Spanish theme park market is illustrated by Universal Studios Inc's leisure arm's re-branding and redevelopment of the former Port Aventura as Universal Mediterranea, and the Warner Bros Movie World attraction in Madrid. The majority of amusement parks are located close to traditional coastal tourism resorts.

The level of 18.5 % of all Spaniards of employment age engaged in tourism and related services is the highest in Europe and suggests that the national economy might be vulnerable to significant downward shifts in volumes.

Introduction

Spain is a major success story in terms of the volume and value of tourists. It lies in second place behind France in the European league of main tourist destinations with 48.2 million visitors in 2000 (compared with France's 75.5 million). This represents both growth of 3% over the previous year and 12% of the total European market of 402.68 million. In terms of the value of foreign earnings, Spain and France lost 4.3% and 5.1% respectively in 2000, worth US$31 billion (€34.6 billion) and US$29.9 billion (€33.4 billion), leaving their market shares at 6.5% and 6.3%.

Yet there exists a discernible imbalance in the distribution of tourists resulting in a re-thinking of strategy and policy. Despite Spain's vast cultural and geographical variation, by far the greatest proportion of tourists make for the sun and sand of the coasts and Mediterranean and Atlantic islands, whether on package tours, scheduled flights or as campers. Indeed, the economies of the Balearic and Canary Islands are heavily dependent on tourism - largely through the package tour market. Also, Spain's industry is subject to considerable seasonal variation in terms of volumes, the period May to September attracting some 70% of international visitors.

The Spanish government has long been concerned to spread tourism more evenly throughout the country and away from the Mediterranean coast, as well as throughout the year. Several of the smaller regions on the northern seaboard with the Atlantic have combined in a programme to boost their individual tourist industries and to highlight their common features and attractions. The Espana Verde initiative was born out of a combined effort by Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country to attract tourists to the part of Spain where the rain falls, and to encourage interest in their countryside, climate, cuisine and tourist attractions - identified as sea, mountains and sports facilities.

One of the symbols - and a highly potent one - is the architectural spectacle of the recently opened Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao which, more than anything else, has given the city and the Basque Country an international identity. It is hoped that such realignment of world perception can be applied to other regions in the interior of Spain which are just as richly endowed with cultural attractions as any of those which are more heavily visited.

Other reports of relevance:

- Travel and Tourism in Germany, Travel & Tourism Intelligence Country Report, January 2002

- Special Report, Holidays - Coping with a Crisis, 2002

- Theme Parks Market - US Report, Consumer Intelligence, 2001

- Special Report, Holidays - Destination Marketing, 2001

- Special Report, Holidays - Planning, Buying, Financing Holidays, 2000

- The Future of Visitor Attractions, Travel & Tourism Analyst No.1 2000

- Theme Parks Abroad, UK Reports, Leisure Intelligence, November 1999

and the forthcoming

- City Breaks in Europe, Leisure Intelligence, April 2002

- Family Holidays in Europe, Leisure Intelligence, June 2002

- Hotels In Europe, Leisure Intelligence, August 2002

- Third Age Travel in Europe, Leisure Intelligence, October 2002

- Pre-family Holidays in Europe, Leisure Intelligence, December 2002.

Definitions

An attraction is where it is feasible to charge admission for the sole purpose of sightseeing. An attraction must be a permanently established excursion destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow public access for entertainment, interest, or education; rather than being primarily a retail outlet or a venue for sporting, theatrical, or film performances. It must be open to the public, without prior booking, for published periods each year, and should be capable of attracting day visitors or tourists, as well as local residents. In addition the attraction must be a single business, under a single management, so that it is capable of answering the economic questions on revenue, employment etc, and must be receiving revenue directly from the visitors.

This report looks at a number of specific types of non-traditional attraction:

- Family entertainment centres (generally located in Spain) are usually located close to holiday beach resorts and are intended to offer a means of relieving the repetitiveness of a diet of two weeks of sun and sand.

- Pleasure/leisure parks (such as the Oakwood white-knuckle complex in South-west Wales) aim to provide an all-weather activity centre largely appealing to younger generations.

- Urban family entertainment destinations (eg Heron City near Madrid) aim to roll up the range of motivations for leisure-seeking into one place - shopping, electronic interactive activities, entertainment, eating and drinking.

- Theme parks (such as Disneyland Paris and Universal Mediterranea) seek to retain visitors within their complexes of attractions by providing a whole-visit package - entertainment, 'edutainment', education, accommodation and restaurants, for example.

- Corporate brandlands (eg Swarowski Crystal factory in Austria, Volkswagen's Autostadt, the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and Wedgwood's emerging glass and pottery centre) exploit the high level of brand recognition on the back of their general corporate marketing and promotion strategies, combining edutainment with consumer exploitation and revenue-earning from retail sales of their products on factory sites.

The definitions of travel and tourism industry and travel and tourism economy are taken from the World Travel and Tourism Council's (WTTC) Tourism Satellite Account methodology, which has identified two major concepts: travel and tourism consumption and travel and tourism demand, which help differentiate between the technical 'industry' (products and services) impact and the broader travel and tourism 'economy' impact (products and services for visitor consumption as well as products and services for industry demand).

The standard definitions used in the terminology of this report (and the Leisure Intelligence series) are as follows:

- tourism is any travel which involves an overnight stay away from home

-a holiday is a subjectively defined form of tourism, as defined by the tourist in response to surveys. A holiday can be distinguished from other leisure travel such as visits to friends and relatives (VFR) or shopping trips

- a long holiday is a holiday of four nights or more away from home; a short break is a holiday which involves one to three nights away from home

- short-haul refers to air holidays within Europe, dominated by flights to Mediterranean resorts but including the Canary Islands, which are treated as a part of the Spanish market. Long-haul, therefore, refers to holidays outside Europe

-an inclusive tour, or package holiday, is defined as the simultaneous sale of at least two elements of a holiday to the traveller: fares on public transport (eg flights) and commercial accommodation (eg hotel or self-catering apartment). Other elements, such as meals or excursions, are not essential to the definition of an inclusive tour. The term 'all-inclusive' is used to describe a special type of resort holiday in which food, drink, excursions and other services are provided as part of the total holiday cost.

- an independent holiday is one in which the traveller organises and books transport and accommodation from separate sources (eg a flight and separate accommodation). Seat- or flight-only is a type of independent holiday, and the terms are used to denote holidays in which travellers only purchase a return fare and thereafter book their own accommodation, car hire etc.

Data sources

Information on macro issues - such as data on World and European countries' performance relative to Spain, arrivals at frontiers, levels of hotel occupancy, balance of payments - is readily available from a number of sources. Key among these are the Banco de Espana, TourMIS, Frontur (conducted by El Instituto de Estudios Turisticos (IET)), Institut Nacional d'Estaistica (INE), World Tourism Organisation (WTO), World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Tourism Commission (ETC). The fact that Frontur's data are based on questionnaires of samples of tourists both entering and leaving Spain leaves room for error. However, it is possible in some cases to cross-check the valuable and extensive data with other sources. In some instances the data differs slightly but not to a degree which invalidates the overall picture.

Like most other European countries - excluding Austria, Ireland and the UK - detailed information on numbers of attractions by category and numbers of visitors to each attraction is not available from top-level Spanish sources. Some information is held by tourism organisations in individual provinces, but the practice is not universal and their reliability is doubtful.

Reference to data provided by Encuesta de Ocupacion en Acampamentos Turistocos (EOAT) enables some conclusions to be drawn regarding volumes and lengths of stay at campsites relative to potential for visitation to attractions. It is especially useful that the information is provided for each region.

Similarly, data from the Encuesta de Ocupacion Hotelera (EOH) provided via the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE) includes hotels, apartment hotels and guest houses which can also be studied to gain a general impression of which parts of Spain tourists are visiting and the volumes in each region. These are supplemented by statistics provided by a few of the major cities - such as Madrid and Barcelona.

Abbreviations

EOAT	Encuesta de Ocupacion en Acampamentos Turistocos
EOH	Encuesta de Ocupacion Hotelera
ETC	European Travel Commission
Frontur	Movimientos Turisticos en Fronteras (survey conducted by IET of tourists entering and leaving Spain)
GDP	Gross Domestic Product
IAAPA	the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions
IET	El Instituto de Estudios Turisticos
INE	Institut Nacional d'Estadistica
INE	Instituto Nacional de Estadistica
OECD	Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
WTO	World Tourism Organization
WTTC	World Travel and Tourism Council