The Spanish Government ramps up investments in tourism May 23, 2009

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Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain’s Prime-Minister, announced that an additional €600 million will be allocated towards the fulfillment of Spanish tourism industry renovation plan. That is on top of the €400 million which was approved earlier this year. As RATA news announced earlier at the tourism department of the Spanish embassy in Moscow, the decision to supplement the initial investment was taken after an approximate €800 million of private funds was allocated during the last month to finance over 1000 projects and create 15000 jobs.

The goal of the renovation plan of the tourism industry is to improve the quality of Spanish travel destination and respectively to increase their competitiveness on the international market. A few interesting data from Spain point out that 19855 visas were issued by the general consulate in Moscow, as of March, 2009 – 91,6% increase from the previous month.

In March Spain received 3,4 million foreign tourists. During the first quarter of 2009 the average individual tourist spending increased by 6,4&, as compared to the same month in the previous year. Catalonia and the Canary Islands became the most popular Spanish destinations for foreign tourists in March. These locations hosted over 826000 and 811000 guests respectively. The average duration of a foreign tourist’s vacation in Spain lasted 10,1 days –this number exceeds last year’s value by 9,1%.