MADRID (Reuters) -Growth in Spain’s tourism industry has slowed down sharply, driven by weaker spending by European and U.S. visitors, and its contribution to this year’s economic growth will be weaker than expected, industry group Exceltur said on Tuesday.
Exceltur now expects all tourism-related activity in the world’s second most-visited country to grow by 2.8% in 2025, a revision down from 3.3% growth it estimated in July, and down from a 5.5% expansion last year.
The group estimated that the tourism industry will contribute 13.1% to Spain’s gross domestic product this year, below its initial estimate of 13.5%.
“Tourism is no longer the main dynamiser of the Spanish economy,” Exceltur Vice President Oscar Perelli told a news conference, adding that the sector will no longer far exceed Spain’s expected economic growth of 2.6%.
The number of international tourists may fall short of the 100 million projected by the World Travel and Tourism Council earlier this year.
Last year, Spain registered a record 94 million tourists. By August this year, 66.8 million tourists had arrived, up 3.9% from the same period a year ago.
“I don’t know if we will reach” the 100 million tourists, Spanish Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said, adding though that he did not consider that as a cause for concern since tourist spending was still rising.
Sales across hotels, airlines, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses rose 2.8% during the high summer season, a significant drop from the 6.3% growth recorded in the same time last year. In the fourth quarter, Exceltur expects sales to rise 2%.
The slowing growth is linked to weaker spending by tourists from Germany, France, Turkey and the United States, Exceltur said. An increase in tourists from Britain, which accounts for 26.5% of total visitors, as well as from China and Poland, helped offset the trend during the peak season, while the number of domestic tourists remained unchanged.
(Reporting by Corina PonsEditing by Andrei Khalip and Peter Graff)
