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Press Release 23/02/2018

TOURISM SATELLITE ACCOUNT. 2016(a)

Tourist spending in the Basque Country increased by 4.4% in 2016, standing at 6.1% of GDP

It reached 7.7% of GDP in Gipuzkoa, el 5.3% in Bizkaia y and 5.2% in Álava

Tourist spending in the Basque Country in 2016 was up 4.4% on 2015, according to Eustat data. In absolute terms, it went from 4,119 million in 2015 to 4,229 million in 2016. In relation to GDP, tourist spending accounted for 6.1% in 2016, one tenth more than in 2015.

This increase in tourist spending occurred in both inbound tourism (+5.5%), i.e. spending in the Basque Country by tourists and day-trippers who come from abroad or the rest of Spain, and in other components of tourist spending (+3.2%). This has meant that, for another year, there was an increase in the proportion of inbound tourism in overall spending, reaching 51.5% in 2016, up 0.6 percentage points compared to 2015.

The item "other components of tourist spending" includes spending by tourists and day-trippers in the Basque Country, spending on tourism by Basque public administrations and the gross capital formation of companies pertaining to the characteristic branches of tourism.

Within tourist spending, of particular note is the importance of day-trips, which includes all tourist trips in which the traveller does not spend the night away from their usual residence, both of residents of the Basque Country and those from the rest of Spain and abroad. This characteristic can be explained by the proximity of France, especially in the province of Gipuzkoa.

The Basque Country continues to stand out due to the importance, in terms of spending, of its outbound tourism (journeys and trips by Basque residents outside of the Basque Country) compared with inbound tourism (journeys and trips by non-residents within the Autonomous Region), which created a deficit of 2,325 million euros, 3.3% of GDP in 2016. In the period 2010-2014, this balance had been reducing as a result of greater dynamism in inbound tourism and restrained spending by Basque people outside of the Basque Country. However, in 2015 it retrogressed once again, due to the rise in spending on outbound tourism, which increased in 2016.

Specifically, 2016 was characterised by a stronger trend in outbound tourism spending (5.7%), as opposed to inbound tourism spending (+5.5%), with which the negative tourism balance increased by 5.8%.

Tourist spending increased in all three provinces in 2016

In terms of spending, Bizkaia represented 44.3% of the total in 2016, followed very closely by Gipuzkoa with 41.9%, and Álava, where spending made up 13.8% of the total. All three provinces saw an improvement compared with 2015, although it was greater in Gipuzkoa, with an increase of 4.9%, above the average; in Bizkaia the growth was 4.4% and in Álava it was 2.8%.

Gipuzkoa remains the province for which tourism acts as a driving force in the economy, despite the increased prominence of the other two territories. In 2016 tourist spending in Gipuzkoa represented 7.7% of its GDP, whilst in Bizkaia the same indicator rose to 5.3% (a historic high in both) and in Álava it was 5.2%.

Finally, in 2015 tourism provided 46,436 jobs in the Basque Country, which is 4.6% of the total volume of employment in the Basque Country.