It is too early to know the number of international travelers with which 2022 ended in Spain. As of today, Frontur (Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade) statistics offer updated data up to November 2022, and the figure amounts to 98.3 million travelers. It is more than double that during the same period in 2021 (pandemic year) and catches up with 2019, the last “normal” year for tourism before Covid. Domestic tourism withstood the health crisis better. In 2021, for example, 143 million trips were recorded within our borders with spending of 32.5 billion.
That tourism is recovering is also demonstrated by the forecasts for FITUR, the International Tourism Trade Fair (January 18-23 in Madrid). The organization expects 120,000 professionals to fill the 755 stands set up in 8 pavilions. The exhibition area is equal to that of 2020.
All these data indicate the strength of the sector in Spain, its capacity for recovery and the efforts of professionals to make this happen. And they translate into a very important specific weight within the Spanish economy. Tourism accounted for 8% of Spain’s total GDP in 2021, and tourism professionals accounted for 11.4% of the country’s active workers, according to the INE.
Technology for legal compliance
“Technology is very present in a sector as relevant as the tourism sector and actively participates in its development. We all have in mind its role in moments such as marketing, for example, but equally relevant is what it can offer in terms of legal compliance, always with the challenge of complementing it with attractive user experiences,” reflects Eduardo Rubio, director of Business Development and Corporate Marketing.
In relation to the latter area, Royal Decree 23/2018, which transposes the (EU) 2015/2302 directive and regulates package travel, and the RGPD, relating to data protection, largely mark the compliance of tourism companies.
Our solutions for the comprehensive execution of legal communications and for electronic contracting ensure compliance with the various applicable regulations, both cross-cutting (RGPD, but also the eIDAS regulation for electronic transactions), as well as those specific to the sector.
Our technological platforms applied to the tourism sector
MailTecK & Customer Comms tools allow the mandatory provision of information to the traveler by the companies with which he/she contracts, with full legal reliability, certification and evidence. In the same process, with the possibility of a customized B2X design, they facilitate the acceptance of the traveler’s contractual conditions and the management of his or her RGPD consent by means of electronic signature with CertySign. The legal validity of all these processes is further strengthened by our recognition by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism as a qualified provider of trusted electronic services in the form of certified electronic delivery.
These solutions are combined in our Digital Travel Itinerary service, which offers the traveler on his smartphone, and in a single digital document, all the information related to his combined trip (hotel, flights, transfer, rental car…) as well as the travel and insurance contracts he has purchased. It also incorporates tools for digital identification and validation of identity documents through facial biometrics. This service is a key tool for the customer experience that also complies with package travel regulations.