European Tourism, Chinese travelers to Spain up 26% so far this year

CGTN Europe

5 months ago

CGTN Europe discussed this and more with Eduardo Santander, Executive Director/CEO of the European Travel Commission.

Transcript

00:00Eduardo Santander is CEO of the European Travel Commission.

00:04Great to have you on the program.

00:06What would you say the impact's been of economic and political turbulence on foreign travel?

00:14Well, it's definitely apparent.

00:16And despite all these challenges, socio-political, geopolitical tensions,

00:20we see that European tourism is still having a strong momentum in 2025,

00:27despite all these issues.

00:29However, we observe, as you were mentioning before in the program,

00:34that there are shifts of patterns in tourism,

00:37whereas, you know, the American travelers are starting to look at Europe with different eyes

00:42with regards to cost of traveling, with regards to connectivity.

00:46And Europe is looking now more into China,

00:49into seeking the really Chinese travelers seeking for quality tourism, for responsible tourism,

00:57because we know that the Chinese travelers have also changed its mentality when it comes to travel.

01:02That shift you're talking about, Europe, is Europe becoming more popular,

01:07or is the US becoming less welcoming to foreigners?

01:11Well, I guess a little bit of both.

01:14However, what we see now is that the summer 2025 has already been booked,

01:18so there's not much of a change of pattern.

01:21We're going to have a very, very good summer in terms of numbers, in terms of arrivals, in terms of expenditure.

01:28However, Q4, it's uncertain.

01:31It's very uncertain.

01:32As long as we don't know how the American economy will be doing in the next three, four months,

01:38we will not know if American people will be able to afford travel or not.

01:42Our forecast is that it will be a drop.

01:44However, it will also depend on many other factors,

01:47as the currency exchange and connectivity between Europe and US.

01:52You mentioned that people have already booked their holidays for now,

01:56but how would you say those global tariff tensions have affected airlines,

02:00have affected hotel companies for next season?

02:04Undoubtedly, you know, the costs are going to be higher.

02:08There's a clear, tangible increase in price into Europe,

02:13whether it's the airfare or the hotel price.

02:17Inflation is also taking a lot of the savings of travelers into Europe.

02:23So we see that, you know, we are under a challenge,

02:26but this challenge also brings a lot of opportunity, you know,

02:29to reconstruct maybe a more quality-orientated tourism,

02:34a more responsible and regenerative tourism.

02:36It's interesting you talk about that opportunity to rethink the tourism model,

02:41because I wanted to talk to you about the over-tourism campaign.

02:45How do you see that maybe changing the way people travel?

02:50We absolutely, you know, see the debate.

02:53We are very much in contact with the associations that are demonstrated against,

02:57not tourism, please.

02:59It's important to underline that all these demonstrations are not against tourism or tourists.

03:04They are against a model of tourism that is maybe anachronic to the times we are living.

03:09Whereas there is a congestion in some places that are very famous, very popular,

03:16and they are congested at certain times and at certain periods of the year.

03:21We need just to manage tourism flows.

03:23We need also to listen to the civil society as they are shouting to be involved in the dialogue of the development of future tourism.

03:31Eduardo Santander at the European Travel Commission, thank you very much.

03:36Thank you very much.

03:39Thank you very much.

03:40Thank you very much.

European Tourism, Chinese travelers to Spain up 26% so far this year

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