Spain tourism chief says geopolitical tumult is ‘lose-lose situation’ for industry

Manuel Butler, director of the Spanish Tourist Office in the UK, has said the destination will likely receive greater interest in the short-term as a result of the Middle East conflict, but warned the war is a “lose-lose” situation for the industry.

 

Butler, whose five-year term will come to an end in August, said Spain will “probably” record more UK arrivals this year than last.

 

Since the Iran conflict broke out on February 28, he said travellers have been more attracted to “safe destinations” but he voiced caution about wider factors.

 

“What we’re seeing now is a lose-lose situation – nobody is winning,” he said, adding: “It will have an impact on the airline industry. The airline industry is key for tourism and for the UK and Spain.”

 

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Agents and operators are increasingly having to reassure clients concerned about possible disruption to flights due to a potential jet fuel shortage.

 

Butler said: “We used to say tourism has a short memory, but I think there are deeper implications – strategic implications, implications for investment and implications on the capacity for producing jet fuel.

 

“In the mid-term, I think it’s not good for tourism as a whole.”

 

He predicted UK travellers will have few issues in Spain when passing through the EU’s new Entry/Exit System.

 

“We’ve had a meeting with high-ranking tourism officials in the UK and they’re not seeing a problem at all,” he said.

 

“We know there can be some punctuality problems with a new system in place. But as far as I know, we’ve not had any problems raised in the office about long queues.

 

“We’re not in the high season yet, but mainly I don’t think it will be a problem.”

 

As his second term in office approaches a close, Butler said he continues to believe the UK trade plays a vital role in promoting travel to Spain.

 

“I think travel agents are pivotal not only for giving advice to holidaymakers about Spain as a destination, but in order to give advice about more sustainable and more socially sustainable tourism,” he said.

 

“We’ve seen tour operators putting more focus on travel agents in the last couple of years. The travel agent is not dead – despite AI and everything. Tourism is a people to people business.”

 

Butler said he was “very happy” with the latest edition of Spain Talks, the Spanish Tourist Office UK’s annual sustainability forum.

 

“I’m very happy that at this fourth edition, we had more people taking part in the panels – in some ways, that’s a good indicator that the concept works and it’s needed,” he said.

 

He added that his efforts promoting more sustainable and more accessible travel count among his proudest professional achievements in the last five years.

 

“It’s been about putting the focus on everybody, and not focusing solely on the economic aspects of tourism,” he said. 

 

“In the last 20 to 30 years, we’ve put a strong accent on economic reasons and we’ve been forgetting about the social aspect of tourism. That’s why we’ve tried to refocus tourism on the original values.”