Simón Pedro Barceló, president of the Barceló Group, has stated that the tourism sector “has become, in a few decades, the world’s leading economic activity and the main job creator globally; and anyone who doesn’t have it, wants it.”
During his intervention on Thursday, on the final day of the Forbes Economic Summit, held at the Forbes House from September 21 to 24 in collaboration with Accenture, Árima, ARK Arquitects, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Cepa 21, Chiesi, DXC, Endesa, Engie, Factorial, KPMG, Línea Directa Aseguradora, MasOrange, Michelin, Naturgy, NTT Data, Pascual, Philip Morris España, Seidor, T-Systems and Verisure, Barceló argued that if we want to maintain tourism in this position, “Spain has it all.”
“Together, we have succeeded in making Spain the world’s leading tourist destination and, as such, we have everything necessary to ensure that the country continues to be a success story in this sector, growing faster than the economy as a whole and outperforming other equally attractive sectors. We have done a lot and achieved a lot, but we still have significant opportunities ahead of us,” emphasized the President of the Barceló Group.
Regarding the destinations chosen by tourists, the executive stated that, originally, people sought places associated with “vacations in the strictest sense of the word, with sun and beach,” but today, “vacation destinations have become places where people enjoy extraordinary experiences, and Spain has taken advantage of all its strengths in this regard.”
In this regard, Barceló has maintained that Spain “still has a wide range of options and, if we make the most of them, we will not only maintain our leadership, but also strengthen it.”
The executive shared a thought during his speech: “Last year there were around 1.6 billion international trips. Spain will welcome around 100 million international tourists this year. If we, the Spanish, decide that instead of 100 million international tourists we want 50 million, the global tourism industry will be fine. Those 50 million people will simply go somewhere else. It will be Spain that suffers the consequences. Tourism will continue to grow worldwide; it can continue to grow in Spain, but it’s up to us whether we do it or not.”
Younger generations are better prepared.
According to Barceló, the younger generations “are much better prepared.“ However, he believes that the responsibility entrusted to them today “is much more complex than the one entrusted to us.”
In his opinion, you can’t expect the same from them or compare them, as “they are better in many ways and will have the opportunity to prove it” – at least, that’s what the director hopes.
