​Speech by President of the Government at inauguration of "Spain Global Tourism Forum"

Mr President of the Regional Government of Madrid; Mr Minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism; Mr Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization; Madam European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs; Madam Mayor of Madrid; ministers, public officials, ladies and gentlemen,

One single figure is enough to sum up the importance of global tourism: 9.5% of global GDP comes from the tourism sector. For that reason, it is totally coherent that both public authorities and private agents devote so much worthy attention to tourism, in line with the activities that contribute to defining the profiles of our globalised world, as well as to help drive progress and the well-being of our societies.

Forums such as today's fully respond to this profile. The various panels of this conference specifically tackle the impact and perspectives of tourism in the global economy. And they do so with the support of those agents that are essential in this area: various international organisations and public administration services, and, of course, the leading figures in tourism entrepreneurship from the private sector.

For all the above, I would like to express my gratitude for the existence of this forum; my gratitude goes to the organisers - the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism of Spain - and to the participants and sponsors that support and back it. On the eve of a key event for the global tourism sector such as FITUR, today's conference could be neither more pertinent nor more opportune.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would not like my gratitude to end there. As President of the Government of Spain, I would like to make very special mention of both Spanish entrepreneurship in the tourism sector and the international players operating in our market. Thank you for having made tourism one of the niches of excellence in the Spanish economy, for having shown the world the best features of our country in the of worst times, and thank you also for having grasped the banner of economic growth and job creation, just when the recession was hitting us the hardest.

I am convinced that millions of Spaniards could make this same acknowledgement. Not without good reason, our tourism industry is a justified source of pride for us all, and it gives us great satisfaction to have been presented today with an Open Letter from the UNWTO and the World Travel and Tourism Council.

I should say that this accolade has been hard earned by our tourism sector, because the history of the tourism sector in Spain is a success story that we have known not only how to maintain, but also how to continually update it. This success is what has allowed us to now stand as global leader in the sector and enabled the collective imagination throughout the world to have an attractive image of Spain as a place to visit and - no less important - to return to. One mindset that speaks volumes, and rightly so, of our country goes as follows: How many people around the world save, month after month, just to come to visit Spain?

It is true that we have unbeatable "raw materials": Spain itself, a country whose attractions we, as Spaniards, re-discover wherever we may go; a country that is synonymous with culture, nature, diversity, boasting a rich balance between tradition and the avant-garde; a country that is capable of leaving every traveller enamoured and turning him or her into an advocate of our brand.

These are undoubtedly exceptional strengths, but they are not our only strengths because, with the passage of time, we have known how to add new assets; those that come from investments made by our public authorities and from the private sector. And thus, the traveller who arrives in Spain not only arrives in a country with a unique cultural and natural heritage, but also arrives in one of the top ten countries around the world in terms of quality infrastructure. He chooses his destination knowing that this is a safe country; specifically the seventh safest in the world and the third in Europe. And he also finds a country at the forefront in terms of healthcare: according to Bloomberg, our healthcare sector is the fifth most efficient at a global level. Hence, when we talk about the attraction of Spain, we have to extend our horizons and include these other major assets that make this possible.

The very competitiveness of our tourism industry is another of the factors that acts as an attractive force for international tourism. And it is not without reason, taking into account a series of variables such as national legislation, environmental sustainability and the aforesaid level of security, Spain is the fourth most competitive country in the world in terms of tourism. This was substantiated in the biennial Travel & Tourism and Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum. And it is important to remember that behind the dynamism of this industry is to be found its true driving force - the human factor - because Spain can be proud of having the best and most qualified human resources in the sector. And it is because of professionals such as these that we have become a global benchmark.

Ladies and gentlemen,

If some of you have detected a certain pride in my words when talking about the Spanish tourism sector, you are not mistaken. As President of the Government of Spain, I feel very proud and will help take this success to even greater heights, by any means at my disposal. However, I must point out that the most important aspect of this satisfaction is not what one can say but what one can clearly demonstrate through facts and figures.

Some of them, which have just been announced, are highly significant and can be summarised in just one word, as has already been mentioned here: we are talking about 'record' figures. In 2014, Spain beat the historic record of number of arrivals for the second year running, with 65 million inbound tourists, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%. In other words, we welcomed 4.3 million more travellers in 2014 than in 2013. In addition to having achieved an unprecedented figure in the number of inbound tourists, this year-on-year increase has been the highest in the last 14 years.

And, right now I have the pleasure of announcing another new figure, which is as positive as it is meaningful: the total spending for inbound tourists in 2014. This exceeded 63 billion euros, with a year-on-year increase of 6.5%, with noteworthy contributions from the United Kingdom, France, the USA, Germany, Italy, the Asian countries and Latin America. More people are coming, they are spending more, and we are taking more in revenue.

It is a fact that we are enjoying excellent back-to-back tourism seasons; a surge of positive figures that have boosted Spain on to the podium of global tourism: we are now the second highest country in the world in terms of revenue from international tourism and the third in the number of inbound tourists.

Ladies and gentlemen,

From the figures I have mentioned, a great truth can be inferred: tourism is the figurehead of the Spanish economy. It contributes no less than 10.9% of our GDP, it generates one in nine new jobs, in other words 12%, and is the leading sector in job creation.

Its beneficial effects, however, go beyond that: with revenue of 47.11 billion euros, its importance in the balance of payments has contributed to correcting the foreign trade imbalance of the Spanish economy over the last few years. To this, we should add the positive dynamics that tourism activity has, through its "knock-on effect", on generating new jobs in many other sectors of our economic fabric.

Hence, it is logical that the government considers tourism policy as a genuine State policy. Tourism is a strategic sector for the present and future of our economy, and our commitment to its development, is, as well as much desired, an obligation.

In this respect, I would like to remind you that from the very first moment we took office, the government has multiplied its efforts to offer visible support to the sector. The first far-ranging reform in this area was the Comprehensive Tourism Plan, approved in June 2012; a cross-cutting plan, with involvement from all ministerial departments with the aim of directly impacting on improved competitiveness and business profitability. Other measures, such as the Coastal Act, were designed to harmonise the economic and tourism development of our coasts with the necessary environmental protection.

And I mustn't fail to mention the coordination bodies, such as the Tourism Sector Conference, the Inter-ministerial Committee, and the Spanish Tourism Board, which help bolster the coordination of tourism policies between the different ministerial departments and public administration services to support the sector.

The containment of various taxes and charges have also undoubtedly had a positive impact on the sector, above all, our refusal to increase tourism VAT. Believe me when I say that this was not easy, and I should know. Together with that, the positive effects of the labour reform, new legislation from various regional governments, and the positive result of public-private collaboration have also been beneficial in helping drive forward our tourism sector.

Having said this, I would like to add something more. However positive the results may have been we cannot allow ourselves, as we were reminded earlier, to become complacent in any way. There are many challenges still facing us and many areas in which we can make far-reaching progress.

And I have no doubts that the tourism sector will be a great beneficiary of new legislation such as the Market Unity Act, the fight against irregular supply and new infrastructures that we continue to relentlessly develop, some of which will be inaugurated during this year, 2015, with a positive impact on areas of great attraction for visitors.

We want, as is the case so far, to continue making progress together - both private stakeholders and public authorities - towards a shared goal of consolidating Spain as the leading tourist destination in the world.

To this end, on the part of the government, we are going to make every effort to provide an appropriate environment for the development of tourism activities, and a secure framework for investments that promote entrepreneurship in the sector, a sector which increasingly seeks innovation and the exploitation of opportunities represented by new communication tools to successfully compete in such a competitive market as - and you know this better than me - the tourism market. I want you to know that you can count on the unswerving support of this government in these areas.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I can confidently claim that the tourism sector will not only benefit from the specific and sector measures that we will approve. The companies that make up this sector are also called upon to capitalise the new scenario of the Spanish reality; a scenario of farewell to the crisis and the welcoming to the consolidation of our recovery. And, in the same way as tourism has contributed to paving the way towards growth, it is now ready to travel down this path to its maximum benefit until reaching the very end.

And that is just what has happened. During the toughest years of the crisis, our tourism fabric guided us like a bright light in the darkness that was casting a shadow over the whole of our national economy because, despite the evident difficulties that they also had to face, our tourism companies offered an unbeatable argument of confidence in the future to all our other economic sectors that whole time. Their success in the worst circumstances showed us that we continued to be amply capable and that we hadn't changed.

Now, in circumstances that are fortunately very different, albeit with a long road ahead of us, the tourism sector must remain at the front of our economic train that is starting to pick up speed. Spain is not a great tourism country by the work and grace of the destination, but rather through the competitiveness of our companies, the security of our country, the guarantee offered by our public services, the cutting edge of our means of transport, the competence of our professionals and the collective desire to strive to be a world leader in tourism and to do so in an unbeatable fashion.

And, as I said before, the new economic environment that between us all - government, companies and workers, and Spanish society as a whole - we have managed to create in record time will help us greatly in achieving this ambitious goal.

Our country, Spain, has now enjoyed six quarters of growth in a row - who would have said that just two years ago? - at increasing rates that are now higher than the major European economies. We have gone from being a country with a more than dubious future to heading up the future growth forecasts in Europe, according to the latest figures announced by the European Commission.

In 2015, we will grow by more than 2%. It will be healthy, balanced growth laid on sound foundations; firm bases that will help drive growth forward in 2015; reformed bases such as the buoyant performance of the foreign trade sector, contained inflation and gains in purchasing power, the recovery of consumption, the reduction in the public deficit, the arrival of international investments, lower financing costs, sustained progress in the creation of new companies and full international acknowledgement of the success of the reformist policies of the last few years.

Dear friends,

Our country is at the gateway to a new virtuous cycle of growth and employment. Spain has hit the change switch. This very week, more than 20 million Spanish taxpayers will start to be rewarded for their efforts over many years with an average tax break of 12.5% in their personal income tax return; the first tax break in a raft of benefits that will immediately continue in 2016.

But the most encouraging sign of change that Spain is undergoing is that one million Spaniards will have found a new job during the course of the years 2014 - with 400,000 new jobs already - and 2015; a figure which, taking into account its unquestionable economic importance, is the soundest basis of our public services, social policies and a Welfare State that are unanimously admired by the millions of tourists who visit our country year after year.

And, beyond the purely economic dimension, one million jobs mean the recovery of one million life projects, and one million homes where hope is knocking at the door once again.

There is still a lot to do, undoubtedly. Many reforms remain on the launch pad. But, in contrast to the first couple of years of this legislature, we now have the empirical certainty that the reforms are the most fertile seeds of change in our country. Today, the future is our ally, but that does not mean that our work is done, far from it. The fuel of the reforms will continue to light up the fire of our economy; the engine room will continue operating at full tilt, relentlessly, and the government will continue fostering such Spanish sectors as tourism, which makes us all feel so proud, for which we express so much gratitude and with which we will continue working side-by-side in order for it to keep providing us with as much joy as it has here today.

Thank you very much.