Enrique Ruiz de Lera, director of the Spanish Tourist Office highlighted how important it was that the destination did not become complacent in a briefing at WTM yesterday chaired by senior travel editor of The Independent, Simon Calder, and also joined by Mark Tanzer, executive director of Abta.
The country hopes to hit the 70 million mark by the end of the year and Ruiz de Lera attributed some of the impressive numbers to tragic events that had occurred elsewhere in the world.
"Spain is 100% the reserve currency of the travel industry," he said. "I would say that approximately 10% of what we are getting this winter is business that would have gone elsewhere.
"We should not rely on this unstable environment as it will not or should not last forever."
The destination is focusing on driving receipts rather than volume and indeed expenditure is growing three times faster than arrivals.
"We’ve seen a 3% increase in volume while expenditure is up 10% year on year," said Ruiz de Lera.
He explained that a tourist board should inspire visitors to "travel differently".
"We have been trying to change it for 30 years but it is like turning around a tanker, not a small boat and we are doing it gradually."
He pointed out that sun and beach is not the same as it used to be and now the discussion is about ’sun and beach plus’ with visitors coming for the beach but also going shopping and taking part in activities.
"Sun and beach is our bread and butter and will be our staple for many years but we also want marmalade," he said.
The panel also debated whether there was a point at which the country decided it had "enough" tourists.
"The debate is out in places like Barcelona," Ruiz de Lera commented. "But even tourists who come on a package holiday and spend most of their money in the UK [with the tour operator] are creating jobs for locals so this is not a time to put a limit on tourists."
