by James Ruggia
Last updated: 1:00 AM ET, Thu December 18, 2014
Image courtesy of HBO
This past year, Spain celebrated 400 years of El Greco and another year of record-setting tourism figures. In 2014 Lonely Planet placed Spain as No. 6 on its list of top destinations. Spanish tourism will enter 2015 with a bit of a boost from the film industry as HBO's hit series Game of Thrones, which is using the Andalusian settings of Cordoba, Osuna and Seville to film portions from the fifth season.
While Spain may be still entrenched in its awful economic slump, that hasn't hurt the number of visitors coming to the country.
According to Spain's Industry, Energy and Tourism Minister José Manuel Soria, Spain had its best summer ever in tourism arrivals with some 31 million international tourists between July and September, a 7.4 percent growth over the same period last year. Between January and September some 52.4 million foreign visitors had come to Spain. Soria now forecasts that 2014 will attract more than 63 million international tourists by year's end, surpassing the 2013 record of 60.6 million.
While tourism regions such as the Canaries (11.4 percent) and the Madrid area (9.6 percent) showed promising growth, Andalusia continues to rule the roost with a record 45 million overnight stays expected in 2014, a 4.3 percent growth that would set an Andalusian record. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Andalusia's visitors are short-haul beach and budget travelers, especially from the British market, which closed in on 950,000 travelers from January to September.
While Andalusia is setting records in arrivals, Catalonia is getting high revenue per tourist. In 2013, Catalonia received 15.6 million foreign tourists, for an 8 percent increase over 2012, €14 billion (a 14.2 percent increase over the previous year). While the figures aren't in for 2014, 2013 was Catalonia's best year ever in tourist spending and foreign arrivals. Catalonia has positioned itself as an "alternative" destination for the kind of sophisticated tourist who might normally opt for France.
The fact that Virtuoso's agents voted Spain No. 6 on its list of top destinations probably had more to do with Catalonia's strength with high end sophisticated travelers. The United States, with 568,347 tourists in 2013, was the ninth largest source market for Catalonia. Americans spent over €1billion ($1.36 billion) in Catalonia in 2013. Total U.S. tourist spending in Catalonia in 2013 was the fourth largest of any foreign country.
In Andalusia, Cordoba, Seville and Osuna will stand in for Dorne for battles between the many backstabbing royals vying for the iron throne, which apparently perfectly matches these Andalusian locations... where we may also see the "Unsullied" army of the Mother of Dragons go into action. In Seville, the film crew used the Real Alcázar palace with its gardens is the main location of the film shoot.
This monument has been declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO. Certain houses in the ducal town of Osuna (about 50 miles from Seville) were used as well as the nearby landscape of Las Canteras, where there is a necropolis and a Roman theatre. Scenes were also shot on a bridge in Cordoba. Some of Osuna's bars and restaurants have adopted names from the series for their tapas selections.
As the new season starts on Game of Thrones and a new season starts for tourists to Spain we will learn by August if it's true that "A Lannister always pays his debts". Another boost may come from the IGLTA Convention that was held in Madrid in May. Specialists in the LGTB tourism sector came from 20 countries.
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