Tourism officials in Spain have announced the development of Plan del Turismo Horizonte 2020, Tourism Plan Horizon 2020, a comprehensive plan to improve the quality of the country’s tourism product by the year 2020 and to ensure that Spain stays competitive in today’s marketplace by developing business models that are environmentally, socially and culturally sustainable.

Spain is on track for a record year in visitors expecting 60 million by the end of 2007. For the first ten months of the year, the country saw 52.7 million arrivals, an almost two percent increase over the same period last year. To date, American arrivals are up to 978,567, an impressive 21.6 percent increase.

Aiming to keep its status as one of the world’s most popular destinations, Spain has developed its new tourism plan to meet several objectives: to fine-tune the impact of tourism by extending the season and promoting lesser known areas of the country; to develop tourism using sustainable resources and a skilled immigrant population, and to continue to be innovative in the industry that accounts for 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The development of the plan unfolded in three phases. Phase I focused on analyzing Spain’s current tourist industry and future trends in travel. Seven areas were identified: sustainability; human resources and training; promotion and commercialization; statistics and market analysis; strategic marketing and tourism products; competitiveness, and innovation.

The second phase involved the creation of seven groups of experts that formulated concrete plans to achieve the goals in the aforementioned seven areas. Debate and discussion were an integral part of the process and feedback was solicited from travel industry professionals, representatives from Spain’s key institutions and the general public. A virtual “forum” was conducted via the Internet where members of the public shared their opinions and had a virtual “dialogue” with tourism officials and industry executives.

Phase III saw the completion of the strategic plan that will serve as the basis of a five-year Spanish Tourism Plan 2008-2012 for the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce.