Spain, the famous country on the Iberian Peninsula is more famous in tourism circles for being the number two tourism destination in the world, than for the outbound tourists it generates.  The Spanish tourism inbound market to Canada has been quietly growing by double digits for the last few years with barely any marketing of Canada in Spain (Canadá en Español websites being one exception).   Spanish inbound grew over 11% in 2006 over the year previous and early numbers for 2007 suggest that growth in '07 will be much stronger.

What kind of travelers are the Spaniards?  What do they want from their visit to Canada?  Do they know enough about Canada?  How can Canada attract more Spaniards to visit?

Spain is a country of approximately 42 million people in a territory half the size of Ontario.  According to the World Bank, in 2005, Spain's $1,124,640 (in millions USD) GDP surpassed Canada's with USD $1,113,820.   So in 2005, Spain was the 8th largest economy in the world and Canada was number 9.  If you look at figures from 1995, Canada was then the 8th largest economy and Spain was 10th.  In the last two years, both Spain and Canada had had good economic growth but Canada's currency has been on a tear.  It may be that currently, Canada's economy is larger than Spain's (according to Statcan, Canada's GDP in 2006 was CDN $1,446,307 {in millions}).   For the purposes of inbound tourism to Canada, suffice it to say that Spain's economy is in the top ten worldwide and that the standard of living of its citizens is similar to Canada's in purchasing power and quality of life.  This brings us to travel.  Where do Spaniards go?

Interestingly, according to Spain's Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio (Instituto de Estudios Turísticos) 93% of Spaniards' travel takes place within Spain.  In 2006, Spaniards took over 166 million (yes million) trips. While domestic travel fell by 3.4%, travel abroad grew by 1.6%  

In 2004, Spaniards took 4.6 million trips to destinations outside of Spain. When Spaniards travel outside of Spain, according to a 2004 MITC report, 73.1% of trips were booked in advance.  About 41% of trips were planned more than a month ahead of departure.  30% of travelers used the Internet at some point in the process. 80% of these travelers used the Internet to research a destination. 42.4% of them used the Internet to book a trip and 16.6% of travelers who used the Internet at some point during the process, used it to actually pay for their trips.  13.3% of Spanish travelers came to the Americas (10.6% to South America and 2.6% to North America).

What destinations in North America are favoured by Spaniards?  #1 New York.  In 2005, according to an article in the Spanish Publication Cinco Días, about 205,000 Spaniards visited New York City, lured there by  that city's brand and the strength of the Euro.  Many affluent Spaniards, according to that same article, love to go shopping to New York before the Christmas Holidays - and they like the big brands: Gucci, Prada, Tiffany.  All of this spells a great opportunity to Canadian cities like Toronto and Montreal.  DMO's take note.  Many Spaniards spend money and spend big.

But New York is not the only type of destination Spaniards like.  New York is a special case as it is for tourists from around the world.  Spaniards also like to destinations with wide open spaces and beautiful natural scenery.  They tend to be more active than Latin Americans so they will be more amenable to soft and hard adventure products.  The only online users of Canadá en Español websites who ever requested information about ice climbing were from Spain.  A large percentage of working Spaniards have the month of August off, so their holidays tend to last several days. The median for a Spanish holiday outside of Spain was about ten days long.

In 2001 Canada received 39,149 Spanish visitors.  By 2006, the number of Spanish tourists to Canada grew to 56,830, a 45% increase in five years.  While these numbers are small, growth is impressive.  This growth has taken place with virtually no marketing of Canadian destinations within Spain.  There is a great opportunity to grow this market for Canada in the next few years. Destinations like Toronto, Niagara, Vancouver, Montréal, Whistler,  the Rockies in Alberta and Vancouver Island are prime destinations to promote in Spain.  Olé!

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