Madrid replaces the Basque Country in the first position of the tourism competitiveness ranking related to the 17 Spanish communities included in the fifth edition of the MoniTUR report, presented this Tuesday by the Alliance for Tourism Excellence, Exceltur, and in whose second position the Canary Islands remains.
The Canary Islands maintains the silver medal in tourism competitiveness thanks to the improvement of its final tourism economic results, given the enrichment and diversification of its tourism offer and the progress in its policies in favor of environmental sustainability and tourism connectivity.
The purpose of the 'Tourism Competitiveness Monitor of the Spanish Autonomous Communities', MoniTUR 2023, is to analyze the tourism performance and the results of the policies of the 17 autonomous communities in favor of the sector during the last legislature.
It also aims to suggest and promote changes in paradigms and tourism policies to generate a socio-economically more profitable tourism, with less environmental impact and more aligned with the expectations of local societies.
The information collected in MoniTUR 2023 (composed of 90 indicators that integrate 7 major competitive pillars) and its comparison with the previous editions of 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2018 allows evaluating the degree of progress and setbacks, as well as the adaptation by the different communities to the new challenges and tourism paradigms.
The executive vice president of Exceltur, José Luis Zoreda, has clarified in the presentation of the report that "neither being the first in the ranking means that there is no room for improvement, nor the last that the results in that area are negative".
Madrid replaces Euskadi in the first position
The Community of Madrid has climbed to the first position from the third in 2018 (to which the Basque Country drops) by registering better results in the assessment of its tourism competitiveness as a result of the dynamism of its private sector and the progress in tourism policy experienced in the last legislature.
To this is added excellent connectivity, the promotion of public and business initiatives in the field of culture, gastronomy, shopping or events, supported by a commitment to high value-added hotel accommodation and driven by its dynamism in the field of business travel.
Despite its decline to third place, the Basque Country continues to register good results in its tourism competitiveness indicators, maintaining the relative values of MoniTUR 2018, but without managing to improve at the rate of the two communities that this time lead the 2023 ranking.
Baleares, which rises from seventh to fourth place, notably improves in its effort to maintain the sustainability of its tourism model, in addition to experiencing a strong boost, the result of strong private investment in product improvement as a result of the 2012 law.
Andalusia and Catalonia, in fifth and sixth place, exchange their positions with respect to the 2018 report, while the Valencian Community drops from fourth place to seventh.
Catalonia loses positions in a context of less dynamism in the strategic concretion and tourism management, accompanied by less business contact; as is the Valencian Community, which suffers from the negative business assessment of the initiatives of the outgoing government team (with the rejection of implementing the tourist tax as the maximum exponent) and the lack of a strategic roadmap for the future.
In the group of smaller communities with less tourism specialization, Murcia stands out - which climbs from twelfth to eighth place - for its promotion of tourism policies and for its work in product clubs and online marketing, with a doubled budgetary commitment that Exceltur hopes will allow it to improve its economic results in the medium and long term.
Asturias (ninth) and Cantabria (tenth) lead the group of Green Spain for their progress in product improvement, their strategy in marketing and commitment, in the case of the former, for the preservation of the tourist space; followed by Galicia (eleventh).
Castilla y León (twelfth) continues to lead the group of inland communities, while Aragon improves significantly due to the improvement of the tourist space and products, rising from the last place, now occupied by Extremadura, to fourteenth.
Castilla-La Mancha and La Rioja remain thirteenth and fifteenth, respectively, while Navarra falls to the penultimate place from tenth in 2018.
