The Government says that tourism is a "key" sector because it accounts for over 12% of GDP and provides 13.6% of employment.
The Government will allocate 1.3 billion to tourism, of which 1.057 billion will come from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, as stated in the draft General State Budget Law (PGE) for 2021 delivered to Congress on Wednesday by the Finance Minister.
Of the 1,300 million euros, a total of 243 million euros will be allocated to the programme for coordinating and promoting tourism in 2021.
The Tourism item is included in the 2,230 million euros allocated to Trade, Tourism and SME policies for next year. Of this amount, 1,627 million euros belong to the non-financial budget and 603 million euros to the financial budget.
In this context, the Spanish Tourism Institute, Turespaña, has a budget of 85.2 million euros for 2021, with which it will develop a programme to support marketing in collaboration with both destinations and products and marketing companies to help strengthen the Spain tourism brand.
In addition, the funding lines for companies in the tourism sector will be maintained in 2021, with a budget of 128 million euros, to support entrepreneurs and retain talent.
The funds from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism will be used to finance actions aimed at the sustainable maintenance and rehabilitation of historical heritage properties, the financing of agreements with Autonomous Communities, the Tourism and Destinations Sustainability Plan, the financing of circular economy projects in companies, the development of associations in the field of tourism products and the Plan for the Digital Transformation of Tourism Destinations.
Recovering mobility and promoting the Spain Brand
The Government stresses in the Project that tourism activity is "key" to the Spanish economy, as it accounts for more than 12% of GDP and contributes 13.6% of employment, while at the same time being one of the economic activities most affected by the current crisis.
In this context, it is important to recover both international and national mobility, for which the various public administrations have drawn up protocols and health and hygiene guides for the different modes of public transport.
The government also highlights as "essential" to guarantee that the destination is safe, and for this purpose, the administrations have safety protocols in public spaces, and the companies in the sector have developed guides in each of the activities which make up the tourism value chain.
In this scenario, the sector has to be prepared so that it is possible to restart its activity whenever possible, for which it must be able to survive the impact of the standstill and recover the confidence of travellers.
To this end, the Executive highlights as "fundamental" that the recovery should be aligned with the principles of socio-economic and environmental sustainability, committing to the efficient use of resources by moving towards a "clean and circular" economy, as stated in the European Green Pact.
In addition, work must continue on the digitalisation, differentiation and deseasonalisation of tourist destinations, which is why the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, led by Reyes Maroto, will work on the recovery of mature destinations and on the enhancement of inland destinations.
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