In separate interviews granted to elEconomista, two major Spanish hotel executives showed their concern about the country´s tourist sector. Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, vice-president of Melia Hotels, and Raul Gonzalez, Barceló Hotel´s CEO, explained that the current prosperity of Spanish tourism is just transient since the improvement is 90 percent based on the events that recently took place in the North of Africa and the Middle East.
Even under these circumstances, still 50 percent of the demand is national and, if we take in consideration our economy will remain weak for a while, it seems difficult to imagine Spanish consumers will be responsible for generating large profits in the hospitality industry.
The domestic consumer is currently reducing costs, only taking vacations once a year and avoiding weekend trips. We can´t forget, real state still expensive, so profitability is hard to achieve only by national demand. For this reason, Spain´s largest hotel groups profits are driven by international demand despite their major assets are in Spain. So right now, Spanish hospitality sector must try to gain international consumers loyalty while revolts in the Middle East still uncertain.
Spain´s Hospitability Industry wants to return to 2007 prices and profitability but, nowadays, competition is strong and quality must improve. We should not forget that real state bubble also increased the tourist market prices in the country.
It must seek a way of changing seasonally adjusted demand with a more culturally diverse offer not only based on the sun and the beach. Unfortunately, there is a lack of optimism, since tourism does not seem like the industry that will drive Spanish economy in the near future.
Translated and Edited by Jose L. De Haro (joseluisdeharo@eleconomista.es)
