Horizon 2020 for Spanish tourism

The Spanish Government and the tourism sector, through the Spanish Tourism Council, have launched the Spanish Tourism Horizon 2020 project. This initiative aims to lay the groundwork for the continued competitiveness and sustainability of tourism in the medium and long term. It will culminate in a final document reflecting the opinions of the sector and society at large, and will form the basis of the new Spanish Tourism Plan 2008-2012.

Three phases
Its first phase, now completed, has provided a comprehensive overview of the Spanish tourism sector: its current situation and the challenges it faces. This has confirmed that Spain is a world leader and that tourism is fundamental to the country's economy and social development. Specifically, 11% of the national wealth comes from tourism, which employs 2,5 million people (a 6,5% increase in 2006) and contributed €40.710 billion to the balance of payments (5,6% more than in 2005).
It also highlights the important improvement efforts that have been carried out in recent years, such as the increase in the supply of quality hotels or the strengthening of urban tourism.
However, the sector faces major challenges such as improving productivity, the influence of the environment, increased international competition, differentiating the offering and adapting to a customer with ever greater decision-making power; which require the development of new approaches.

Tourist reviews
Having assessed this, we are now fully into the second phase, the social debate, which will allow us to gather input not only from the sector but from society in general. Seven groups of experts in sustainability, competitiveness, innovation, product and strategic marketing, human resources, promotion and sales, statistics, and market intelligence are working on this, tasked with establishing the framework for future discussions. The Tourism Board announced that a website will soon be launched containing the relevant documents, as well as future feedback.
The third phase will consist of a final document with the strategic lines of Horizon 2020 for Spanish Tourism.

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