Tourist revenues in the Canary Islands increased by 11.1% in 2024, above other classic holiday destinations such as Comunidad Valenciana (10.8%) or the Balearic Islands (7.9%).
The major cities led the growth in tourism sector revenues, with Madrid in the lead, with 18.6%, followed by Seville (15.3%), Malaga (11.4%), Barcelona (8.8%) and Valencia (5.2%), only punctually affected by the DANA.
As reported this Thursday by the Alliance for Tourism Excellence, Exceltur, tourism consolidated in 2024 for the second consecutive year as the main engine of the Spanish economy, with a contribution of 207,763 million euros, 6.5% more than a year ago or 10,646 million more in real terms.
Thus, the tourism sector accounts for 26.1% of the increase in Spanish GDP and the increase it is experiencing (6.5%) is more than double the growth of the Spanish economy (around 3.1%), with foreign demand being the main trigger for its rebound, its executive vice-president, Óscar Perelli, said at a press conference on Thursday.
The advance of tourism is based, among other factors, on the growth of investment in product improvement (4 and 5 star hotel places in 2024 are 10% above 2019), environmental commitment and digital transition (investment in tourism branches increases by an average of 6.2% per year since 2020 compared to 2.3% in the rest of the sectors).
On the other hand, foreign demand accounts for 80% of the increase in tourism GDP in 2024, improving more in spending than in volume of travellers and overnight stays, without accusing the unfavourable economic situation of some of our main markets or the still low levels of confidence of European consumers.
For its part, Spanish demand has settled its growth rates and has consolidated the levels of travel activity of 2023, reflecting normalisation, while registering a greater increase in terms of spending on tourism in Spain, of 3.7%.
However, the greater dynamism of Spanish travel occurs to international destinations, with a rebound of 16% and 15.7% in overnight stays, to the detriment of the available budget of households for national travel.
More than 72,000 new jobs
Tourism has generated 72,310 new jobs, 3.2% more, and has contributed 32,854 million euros for the financing of social security, while temporary employment has fallen to 7.8% due to the increase in permanent hiring, with 69,000 more workers.
At the business level, the sector closes "a positive 2024", with a growth in sales of 7.7% compared to what was already a good year 2023 and an improvement of 8.2% in its results.
The volume of tourist demand (Spanish and foreign) in Spain during 2024 (1,063.2 million nights in the accumulated until September) has not reached the maximums located in 2017 (1,068.8 million).
51% of the increase in tourist pressure in 2024 is due to the increase in nights in homes for tourist use (28 million more), due to a strong rebound in supply (of 17.5%).
