Spain will be the most visited country in the world in 2040

Tourism is a key driver of social and economic growth around the world, but it has obviously been impacted by the global pandemic, and although in 2023 it reached 88% of the volume in the years leading up to the pandemic, it is still struggling to maintain growth. The good news for Spain is that in 2040 will become the most visited country on the planet by tourists, According to Google.

This is one of the findings of the study “Travellers and NextGen Destinations: Our Vision for Transforming the Travel Industry,” prepared jointly by Google and Deloitte, which analyzes the evolution of the sector since 1990 and forecasts how it will continue to develop until 2040.

. Let’s go step by step. The tourism sector experienced strong growth between 1975 and 2019, during which the number of international arrivals doubled approximately every 15 years.

The study shows that European countries are the main source markets. However, between 2010 and 2019, Africa and the Asia-Pacific (Asia-Pacific) region experienced above-average growth, even higher than Europe. In turn, the Asia-Pacific region has generated almost 215 million new trips over the past ten years, outpacing European countries. Actually, China rose to the number 1 position in the ranking of issuing markets in 2019.joining a leading group consisting of Germany, the US, the UK and Russia.

But the study analyzed not only countries, but also travelers, and divided them into four different types of travel based on origin: first-timers, amateurs, experienced and ultra-experienced. Experienced and super-experienced countries are those with the oldest populations, with 50% of the population over 45 years of age.

. As tourists become more experienced, the number of domestic trips per capita tends to decline in favor of international trips.

In the ranking destinations, Europe is in the lead and since 2010 the most visited countries (France, Spain, USA, Italy and China) maintained their positions and market share. The analysis estimates that by 2040, the number of trips will continue to grow and reach 2.4 billion. While The five main source markets (China, US, Germany, UK and Russia) will remain in their positions, Europe will gain the largest share with more than 362 million additional tourists between 2019 and 2040, representing 38% of the total.

By 2040, the study notes, Spain, France, the United States and China will maintain their positions in the top five, while Italy will drop to sixth place and Mexico will rise to fifth.

In this medal table, Spain will be the most visited country in the world (110 million foreign tourists), five more than France and 10 more than the United States. Obviously this is good news, but the infrastructure will have to adapt because we will move from the current 85 million to receiving another 25 millionmore than a quarter of the current figures.