Effects of the COVID-19 tourism crisis on the Spanish economy

Abstract

This study addresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Spanish tourism sector and economy in general, at the national and regional levels, through a comparative analysis between the evolution observed in the sector and the evolution that could have happened had the pandemic not occurred. This study was conducted in two stages. First, the total tourist expenditures for 2020 and 2021 were predicted under the assumption that the pandemic had not occurred. In the second stage, the losses in terms of turnover, jobs and the contribution of the tourism sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) that would have occurred without the pandemic were estimated. We applied the input–output method and found that for every €1000 less of tourist spending due to the pandemic, €1883 less were contributed to the GDP, and for every €100,000 less in spending, 2.8 jobs were lost.