Residents in quite a few cities in Spain have been complaining about having too many vacationers lately. Native authorities and tourism boards imagine the important thing lies in diversification, and Chinese language holidaymakers may very well be central to this.
Residents of many standard components of Spain have been protesting towards overtourism for a number of years now, complaining about overcrowding, rising rental costs and rowdy behaviour.
Nonetheless, some authorities and tourism officers wish to appeal to but extra vacationers – particularly these from China.
If many locations are already affected by the variety of vacationers although – why does the nation need extra?
Specialists imagine that the important thing to fixing a few of these tourism points is to alter the present mannequin – this implies transferring away from providing low cost bundle vacation offers to the costas, in addition to stag and hen dos and occasion tourism, and concentrating on these travellers who’ve more cash to spend and go to extra inland cultural locations as an alternative.
So why Chinese language vacationers?
A Chinese language holidaymaker spends a median of €2,958 throughout their keep in Spain, which quantities to about €288 per day, as their common keep is 10.3 nights.
Brits however spend a median of €1,151 and €166 per day as they spend roughly 6.9 nights, in keeping with a report from journey market Fitur.
People additionally spend lower than the Chinese language with a median of €2,113 throughout their keep or €273 per day.
Commercial
Moreover, the typical Chinese language vacationer isn’t coming to Spain for solar or seashores – they’ve loads of that nearer in Southeast Asia.
As a substitute, they arrive to Xībānyá (Spain in Mandarin) for tradition and good meals. This implies they’re staying away from the overcrowded resorts and choosing various locations to many European vacationers.
Usually, Chinese language nationals keep in high-end accommodations quite than vacationer residences, one of many predominant gripes that locals have relating to the ‘touristification’ of their cities, as these vacation lets push up costs and rents.
A number of Spanish cities have been open about their plans to focus extra on attracting Chinese language guests. One in every of these is the historic metropolis of Toledo in central Spain, the place they wish to “promote high quality tourism over mass tourism”.
The Castilla-La Mancha metropolis has not too long ago launched a marketing campaign to draw extra vacationers from Asian markets and have additionally despatched a delegation over to China made up of representatives from Toledo’s hospitality and enterprise neighborhood.
In addition they wish to begin the method of twinning Toledo with Xi’an, residence of the well-known Terracotta Warriors.
Authorities Toledo have not too long ago been taking steps to restrict the affect overtourism is having on its outdated quarter, from restricting free tour advertising, to controlling tour group numbers and solely permitting one vacationer practice and bus.
This will show a problem vis-à-vis Chinese language guests, as they have an inclination to journey in teams.
Commercial
One other metropolis wanting Far East for brand spanking new tourism markets is Gijón in Asturias.
In 2026, the northern metropolis’s aim is to focus on the Chinese language travellers and “discover this new market”.
Curiously, Gijón does not endure from the identical overtourism issues as different coastal cities in Spain, however they’re clearly trying to appeal to a extra prosperous holidaymaker.
Even smaller cities akin to Talavera not removed from Toledo will this month obtain a Chinese language delegation with the purpose of selling themselves within the Asian large’s tourism spheres.
A complete of 93.8 million overseas vacationers visited Spain in 2024 and of those, 647,801 got here from China, representing a 66.7 % improve from 2023.
A rise in flight hyperlinks between the 2 international locations has helped on this regard. Final 12 months, Air China resumed its direct route between Barcelona and Shanghai, and Málaga and Seville are negotiating to introduce a weekly direct flight to cities in China too.
Cathay Pacific additionally returned to Barcelona in 2024 resuming continuous flights between the Catalan capital and Hong Kong.
Sichuan Airways inaugurated direct flights connecting Madrid with Chengdu, famed for its large panda bears, again in April of this 12 months.
And, China Southern Airways will launch its first path to Spain this winter too with three weekly flights between Guangzhou and Madrid.
READ ALSO: Five facts to help you understand Spain’s Chinese community
