informe

80% of Galician businessmen expect to improve results this year, benefiting from the next celebration of Xacobeo in 2021, although with less intensity, according to this survey

The latest report published by the Spanish tourism employers’ association, Exceltur, includes the final balance sheet for 2019 and the sector’s prospects for this start of the year. In this sense, the business survey reflects the consolidation of the slowdown in the growth of tourism activity detected in 2019, which grows to +1.5%, below the dynamism of the Spanish economy (+2.0%) for the second consecutive year.

The destinations of the communities of Green Spain close 2019 in positive, with significant increases in income, favored by the strong increase in foreign demand, which allows them all to close the year with improved results and income: Galicia (+2.8% in results),
Cantabria (+1.1%), Basque Country (+1.2%) and Asturias (+0.3%). In its combination, the sector has managed to maintain its capacity to generate employment, despite the decline in productivity and the increase in labour costs, one of the biggest concerns for employers this coming year.

In this regard, and looking ahead to 2020, the sector highlights the weakness in economic growth although, overall, employers are confident that they will continue to increase their revenues (+3.1%) and sales (+3.9%) by 2020, with a slight recovery in prices (+3.0%) and more moderate job creation (+2.3%) than that recorded in
2019 (+3,5%). In the particular case of Galician businessmen, they are confident that their results will be improved by the next Xacobeo celebration in 2021, although with less intensity (+1.6%) and almost 80% expect an improvement in sales and income next year.

In this context, Exceltur anticipates for 2020 an extension of the cooling path of the tourism GDP growth rate, maintaining a +1.5% rate for the year-end, similar to the one registered in 2019. With the arrival of the new government, it is also necessary to promote a new State tourism roadmap and policy, a new public-private governance that strengthens the investment capacity in supply improvements, progress in digitalization, addressing environmental challenges and pursuing greater citizen empathy.

In terms of destinations, as the weakness of European markets such as Germany or the United Kingdom continues to grow, the weight of local and long-distance markets is increasing. The report also covers the problems of airport connectivity and the need to continue to make progress in complying with the rules relating to VUTs

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)