4. The Recent Boom in Spain: Economic Sustainability of Destinations

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring movements and instability in the North of Africa, a relevant share of international tourists have changed their plans, relocating their holiday time from southern to northern shores of the Mediterranean. In this context, Spain has been one of the most benefited countries, making the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 historical records for international arrivals with more than 70 million tourists. However, times of exuberance could bring important imbalances for the future. The present chapter seeks to analyse the impact of the booming process occurring in Spanish tourism destinations, with a focus on the side of economic sustainability. In particular, we address two main issues: First, and relying on survey data of international tourists in Spain for years 2010–2015, we analyse the changes taking place in the profile of tourists arriving to four leading destinations in the country (Catalonia, Madrid, Canary islands and Balearic Islands). Second, we run expenditure functions for these destinations to estimate the main factors explaining spending decisions of tourists. Combination of these two analyses help us to get deeper understanding of the changes occurring in international tourism arriving to Spain in this period, and how these could be affecting the economic sustainability of destinations in the near future.