Critically analyze the key characteristics

1.0 Introduction

 

With the bright sunshine, the golden beaches, Spain has become the third most popular tourist country in the world.Since the seventies, the rapid development of the Spanish tourism industry has been one of the country's pillar industries. In the new century the theme of tourism in Spanish is innovation and sustainable development. Taking the quality of tourism seriously, the Spanish tourism industry performs well and it results in a booming economy. According to 2003 data from World Tourism Organization, Spain places second in the ranking of countries either by international tourism earnings(after the Unites states) or by international tourism arrivals(after France)(Teresa,2005). In fact, the economy of Spain is heavily dependent on tourism. Why the international tourism contributes so much to the Spanish economy? Why does it perform so well? Does it always perform well even during the global economic crisis? This paper will describe several key characteristics and analyze the performance of international tourism industry in Spain. The first characteristic is the focus on creating brand. Following this, this essay will explain the second feature that the diversified routes including cultural tourism, rural tourism and urban tourism. And then it will discuss how the government of Spain emphasizes on environmental protection and sustainable development. After that the importance of tourism promotion is also one of the reasons that why tourism industry is so successful in Spain. Finally, it will describe the performance of tourism of Spain in 2009 and give advices to expect the travel and tourism industry perform better.

 

2.0 Focus on creating brand

 

The Spain, which is the kingdom of tourism, focuses on creating brand. It not only takes its natural advantage of sunny beach in the competitive tourism market but also puts emphasis on the creating of beach holidays products. To the most important, it always takes the quality at first. As a consequence, the public has an understanding of “the Spanish brand”. Specifically, the Spanish develop the seaside tourism and creating brand through the following points:
 

2.1 Unified scientific planning

 

The government of Spain attaches great importance to the plan of coastal tourism development and makes a rule that all of the coastal tourism resources are in the provisions of the state whose right to use is allocated to the local government. National, provincial and municipal governments have developed coastal development control planning. There is unified planning about the use of land, zoning principles, resort facilities, access channels, environmental protection, meeting facilities and so on. The government has developed <<Spain Beach Law>> which has been the legal basis for coastal development. In Lanzarote there are clear standards on building density and height, architectural style, construction materials and even the distance from the coastline (Asuncion Beerli and J.D.Josefa D. Martin, 2004).#p#分页标题#e#

 

2.2 Adhere to the market-oriented

 

An accurate market position plays a guide and significant role in the development and construction of resorts. Not only the space distance but also the cultural and psychological factor has affected the seaside holiday market. According to the scale of the source market the government of Spain makes strategy about the development and construction. What is more, it puts emphasis on market segments and makes targeting and personalization products for the tourists. 90% of international tourism arriving in Spain is from Europe (Isabel, 2008). Each resort has a specific target groups including domestic visitors, tourists in other European countries, as well as sport, elderly, youth and family vacationers. Aiming at those European who like private yachts Mallorca developed a number of marinas. There are 24,000 berths and the parking fee is 1000 euro per night. The royal family members in many countries and famous stars are shipping their private yachts here for all the year. All of these shows in Spain the market are everything.

 

2.3 Strict standardized management

 

The management about beach in Spain is strict. The environment there is clean and wonderful. The facilities are complete. The government manages the beach. Everyday a dedicated staff will be responsible for daily monitoring of water samples to ensure water reach the quality standards. In order to protect the health of visitors the Spanish obey the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE)’s Blue Flag criteria that include standards for water quality, safety, environmental education and information, the provision of services and general environmental management criteria. The Blue Flag is sought for beaches and marinas as an indication of their high environmental and quality standards. Someone has claimed that an ‘increasing number of tourists are therefore asking for Blue Flags before choosing their holiday destination’ (John, 2010).
 

3.0 Diversified routes including cultural tourism, rural tourism and urban tourism

 

3.1 Rural tourism and urban tourism

 

Since the 21 century Spain has no longer just focuses on sunny weather and sandy beaches. It has diversified its travel and tourism routes including rural tourism, urban tourism and cultural tourism. Rural tourism in the countryside is trend remodeling the Spanish travel and tourism industry(Rosa,2002).Partly as a result of the growing sophistication of tourist demands and partly as a result of the urban facelift in most Spanish cities, cities are increasingly attracting visitors. Those people not only go to the beach but also flock to their museums and historic buildings.Tourists are crowding to Bilbao, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Saragossa, Seville, and not just the Mediterranean beaches.

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3.2 Cultural tourism

 

Spainis a popular destination of cultural tourism because of its varies of remainsespecially cities like Seville, Granada, Córdoba and Toledo. In Spain there are over 1,400 museums and graphic museum collections and you can find all what you want to learn. There are 42 World Heritage Sites in Spain including Garajonay National Park, Historic City of Toledo and so on. Bullfighting, flamenco and folk festivals are all leaving people a lasting impression. A large number of museums, galleries, churches, ancient city in Spain are an important part of cultural tourism. It is no doubt that diet is also one of the most attractive cultural tourisms. Taking the advantage of the rich historical and cultural resources, the Spanish developed many types of tourist and cultural tourism routes to meet the personal taste (Yuko, 2009). For instance, there are three important cultural tourism routes including Church Quixote Route,The Way of Saint James and The Silver Route. Particular the pilgrimage tours –The Way of Saint James is the most successful. Now it includes the most popular route French Route which begins in the Pyrenees and has two variants depending on where you choose to enter: Roncesvalles (through Navarre) or Somport (through Aragon) and Northern Route which was first used by the pilgrims in order to avoid travelling through the territories occupied by the Muslims in the Middle Ages. With the Northern one the greatest attraction is its landscape, as a large part of the route runs along the coastline against a backdrop of mountains and overlooking the Cantabrian Sea. Research on the production of cultural industries has shown that the location of talent plays an important role in its growth, and this finding has been useful in developing various local economic development strategies (see, for example, Florida, 2002; Markusen, 2006; Markusen and Schlog, 2006). Besides, cultural industries are also increasingly dependent upon global demand for cultural commodities, through exports of culturally distinct music and art forms (Aoyama, 2007).Therefore, cultural and tourism development are mutually reinforcing. Those people who have been to Spain will feel that tourism is inseparable from culture and culture is the soul of tourism. The culture will support the sustainable development of tourism industry in Spain. No doubt it is the key characteristic to put emphasis on the development of cultural tourism products.

 

4.0 Stress environmental protection and sustainable development

 

4.1 Environmental protection

 

Another characteristic of international tourism industry in Spain is that the government stressed environmental protection and sustainable development well. For the sustainable development of tourism the government of Spain believes it should make efforts on the ecological diversity and the sustainable of society, culture and economy. On one hand, in the process of exploitation of tourism resources they take varies forms to protect and govern the environmental. Spanish considers environmental conservation efforts to be a global issue and is therefore involved in various protection programs. The country participates in the Ramsar Convention as a measure to protect its wetlands. Agreements have been endorsed within the framework of the European Directive on the protection of wild birds and various marine areas in the Mediterranean have been designated as protected areas under the Plan of Action agreement. Besides, the protection program created by UNESCO under the World Heritage Convention has recognized four Spanish National Parks: Doñana, Garajonay, Teide and Monte Perdido. Furthermore, the UNESCO program, Man and the Biosphere, includes 40 biosphere reserves on Spanish land. Spain also holds an active attitude in defense of the global environment and has signed numerous agreements and protocols on the global protection of nature, including agreements on the protection of the ozone layer, atmospheric contamination, whale hunting, refuse and dangerous dumps, climatic changes, the protection of species in danger of extinction and the protection of tropical forests. It initiated an environment conservation policy many years ago, which in recent years has become more pronounced. Following this, almost 11.8% of the land is protected by either an administrative or legal regulation. The protection policy has been fundamentally a state initiative, increasing the number of National Parks, Natural Parks and hunting reserves. Spain is therefore a country in which the level of environmental conservation awareness is high and continues to increase.#p#分页标题#e#
 

4.2 Sustainable development

 

On the other hand, the planning department does research on quantitative environmental protection to analysis the influence that may be took by the future tourism activities and on this basis they can conduct necessary measures. As mentioned earlier the government makes the << Spain Beach Law >> and in the process of governance it takes strict implementation of the Foundation for Environmental Education(FEE)’s Blue Flag Program. All of these show that the government of Spain stresses the environmental protection and remains committed to sustainable development well. In addition, in order to protect those castles which are numerous and widely distributed in Spain the government purchase them to be state owned and change them into hotels. With regards to this it set up ancient building management company that under the Ministry of Economic Affairs to manage these hotels whose property right is belong to the country. With the money that earned from the castle hotel they can acquire more castles. Through this circulation not only the cultural heritages are protected but also the economy is benefit from this.

 

5.0 The importance of tourism promotion

 

Spanish government attaches great importance to tourism promotion with a special tourism promotion agencies namely Spain Travel Association which has 31 offices overseas. From 80s of last century, it can be divided into different stages of promotion. The first phase is from 1982 to 1989 with the slogan “Spain, Everything under the Sun”. It highlights sun and sand but also introduce golf, wine, traditional programs, and such diversification of tourism products to meet the needs of guests; the Second phase is from 1989 to 1995 with the slogan “Spain--the passion of life” which mainly   introduce visitors the character of Spanish like open, love holiday, natural and not artificial; the third phase is from 1995 to 1999 with the slogan “Spain awesome”. It invites the most outstanding photographers to take dozens of impressive pictures to promote the subject; following that there are slogans including “the Spanish brand” and“Smile! You're in Spain”. In 2010 a new slogan “I Need Spain” as the international promotion of its latest slogan with the common theme our way of life will be promoted in more than 40 countries and to 400 million people. It can clearly be seen that the Spanish not only targets to make the country an overall theme of marketing slogan based on different stage but also attaches the importance of the joint regional publicity promotion.

 

6.0 The worst performing year on record

 

With above-mentioned characteristics the performance of tourism in Spain had been   continuously excellent but by many measures 2009 was the worst performing year. According to the report of Travel and Tourism in Spain the number of incoming tourists plummeted, driven by the sharp deterioration of the European economy. With unemployment hitting 19% of the Spanish working population, nearly 40% of Spaniards did not enjoy a holiday. Those who did travel stayed for fewer days on average, and often avoided staying in hotels. Companies also reduced their travel budgets. By 2012 in Spain the travel and tourism industry is expected to recover some dynamism, but the situation seems to be very fragile. Meanwhile as some of the recent changes in tourism patterns are here to stay the industry will need to streamline and revamp its travel accommodation supply to adjust to the current situation. Room capacity needs to be reduced in tourist areas, as fewer tourists are expected in the peak season. In the meantime, compared with other European city destinations the supply of travel accommodation in urban areas must have to increase to allow Spanish cities to become more competitive.#p#分页标题#e#

 

7.0 Conclusions

 

In conclusion，As tourism is a great source of revenue and employment it has become the most important economic sectors in Spain. It is necessary to bring the key characteristics of its tourism industry to light. Objectively speaking, warm, sunny beaches, the pleasant climate, physical beauty of the coastline, rich culture background and numerous World Heritage Sites in Spain have contributed to a dynamic tourism industry that centered particularly on the Mediterranean coast and the island communities. Subjectively speaking, the characteristics of the tourism industry present are based on a lot of energy that the government spend and vary many efforts it makes. They diversify their tourism routes including rural tourism, urban tourism and cultural tourism. As a consequence it enhances competitiveness in the intense competition of the tourism industry. Another summarized characteristic is the government stresses environmental protection and sustainable development.As everyone knows that the success of any program is closely related to its promotion. So the last key characteristic of the tourism industry is that Spanish government attaches great importance to tourism promotion. However when the eruption of the Panic of 2008 came it threatened the very foundations of the global economy. It isinevitable for the tourism industry in Spain to perform the worst over the year. Anyway the good news is that the economy is gradually recovering. So for Spain on one hand it should maintain its traditional advantages but on the other hand it needs more efforts on developing new tourist attractions and innovation.
 

8.0 Reference

 

Aoyama, Y. (2007). The Role of Consumption and Globalization in a Cultural Industry: the Case of Flamenco. Geoforum 38.1, 103–113.

 

Asuncion Beerli and J. D. Josefa, D. Martin. (2004).Tourists’ Characteristics and the Perceived Image of Tourist Destinations: a Quantitative Analysis—a Case Study of Lanzarote, Spain.Tourism Management:25,623-636

 

Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Perseus Books

 

Isabel Cortés-Jiménez. (2008). Which Type of Tourism Matters to the Regional Economic Growth? The Cases of Spain and Italy.Int. J. Tourism Res:10,127-139

 

John McKenna, Allan T. Williams, and J. Andrew G. Cooper. (2010).Blue Flag or Red Herring: Do Beach Awards Encourage the Public to Visit Beaches?Tourism Management: 5, 1-13

 

Markusen, A. (2006). Urban Development and the Politics of a Creative Class: Evidence from a Study of Artists. Environment and Planning: 10, 21–40.

 

Markusen, A. and G. Schrock. (2006). The Artistic Dividend: Urban Artistic Specialization and Economic Development Implications. Urban Studies 43.10, 1661–1686.#p#分页标题#e#

 

Rosa Maria Yague Perales. (2002). Rural Tourism in Spain.Annals of Tourism Research:4, 1101-1110

 

Teresa. (2007). German Demand for Tourism in Spain.Tourism Management:28, 12–22

 

Yuko Aoyama. (2009).Artists,Tourists, and the State: Cultural Tourism and the Flamenco Industry in Andalusia, Spain.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research:33.1, 80-104