English, German, and French Tourists Are Key to the Success of Andalusian Destinations (Spain)

Abstract

Why was this research undertaken? Because in some tourist destinations the number of international tourists has a greater impact on the number of overnight stays at hotels compared to domestic tourism. The aim of this study was to analyse the main tourist market segments in destinations in Andalusia from 2004 to 2022, to demonstrate the relevance of, and dependency on, the tourism industry in this territory. The methodology used in this research collected secondary data from Spanish and Andalusian public organizations (IECA, INE, SAETA and AENA), and information related to this topic from researchers and organizations (primary data) to select specific indicators and to draw the appropriate conclusions. The findings of the current study reveal that English, German, French, Italian, Belgian, and American tourists are the main markets of the Andalusian provinces and their hotel establishments. In addition, these three segment markets depend on the air accessibility and connectivity provided by Andalusian airports. Moreover, it should be remembered that domestic tourism generates 35.1% of the overnight stays at Andalusian hotels. Domestic tourism helped the hoteliers of Andalusia to survive the pandemic crisis when inbound tourism dropped to zero. Andalusia constitutes an interesting case of study because it attracts a large amount of tourism demand. Although English, German, and French markets monopolize the number of overnight stays, DMOs need to attract tourists from other countries to diversify the tourism demand.

Exploring Andalusia’s Rich Heritage through Surveys: Pastoral Livestock Farming as a Tourist Attraction Resource

“…Despite the obtained scores, all activities developed around the Iberian pig, including tastings, fairs, slaughters, etc., as well as the experience of visiting a dehesa and learning about extensive breeding, are tourist resources positively valued in other studies [62,63]. This may be due to the fact that national and foreign tourists appreciate and are interested in the autochthonous ecosystems and customs of Andalusia much more than its own inhabitants are [73]. As regards bulls, bullfighting can no longer be the sole activity generating economic returns from their breeding.…”

Constructing Spanish smart destinations: a new guide for the tourism industry

“…The graph C in Figure 5 also shows how Málaga smart destination has the best average occupancy rate of 75.2%, followed by Tenerife Island (68%), Benidorm (63.6%), San Sebastián (52%), Santander (50.4%) and Gijón (48.9%). In general, hotel occupancy rates have fluctuated in the period analysed, particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, where this had a devastating effect on the Spanish hotel industry in 2020, more than the financial crisis in 2008 (Marco-Lajara et al, 2022; Florido-Benítez, 2023c). Benítez-Aurioles (2022b) claims that the Spanish hotel establishments are conditioned by a high seasonality in the lows season, the tourist flow driven by each region, hotel’s location (coastal or urban areas), the hotel size and marketing strategies that affect directly the hotel industry’ efficiency, sustainability and occupancy rate (Laura Parte-Esteban & Alberca-Oliver, 2015; Hidalgo et al, 2022; Florido-Benítez, 2023d).…”

Tourism promotion budgets and tourism demand: the Andalusian case

“…International and national visitors' data represent a stratified sample to compare different results. All these indicators have been selected in previous studies in the literature (Heriqbaldi et al, 2023;Florido-Benı ´tez, 2023a, 2023c and helped us to answer the three research questions and the main goal of this paper. Indeed, to measure the sustainability of the tourism industry at tourist destinations, it is required to examine the number of hotels and rooms, hotel occupancy rate and passenger and tourist arrival indicators (Aguirre et al, 2023;Gehlot and Singh, 2022).…”

“…To ensure effective management of tourism promotion campaigns, DMOs need tools like key performance indicators (KPIs) that can measure digital and traditional marketing and promotion activities' impacts on tourism development. The DMO of Andalusia needs to attract tourists from other countries to diversify the tourism demand (Florido-Benı ´tez, 2023a). Andalusia and its eight provinces (Almerı ´a, C adiz, C ordoba, Granada, Huelva, Ja en, M alaga and Seville) are one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain.…”