Prime Minister's Office of Spain

02/26/2026 | Press release | Archived content

Spain offers its experience and leadership to Commissioner Tzitzikostas for the future EU Sustainable Tourism Strategy

Spain offers its experience and leadership to Commissioner Tzitzikostas for the future EU Sustainable Tourism Strategy

President's News - 2026.2.26

The European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, met with the Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, and the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, to discuss the Spain Tourism 2030 Strategy.

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, and the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, during the meeting

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The Ministry of Industry and Tourism wants to offer the European Union its experience and international tourism leadership, with the aim of decisively influencing the European Union's Sustainable Tourism Strategy, currently under development. This is particularly relevant given that Spain is the second country in the world in terms of international tourist arrivals and tourism spending, as well as in innovation, modernisation, and digitisation.

In the meeting, the minister conveyed to the commissioner Spain's pioneering commitment to more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable tourism, through a cross-cutting roadmap that was very positively received by the commissioner, who pledged to use it as an example and to collaborate with the Government of Spain on the implementation of the European strategy.

Hereu stressed that "Spain has taken a bold, well-developed, rigorous, and consensual step to address the challenges of tourism in the coming years, supporting the transformation of tourism with a reliable and well-prepared roadmap, which must now be taken into account by the European Commission to ensure aligned strategies that translate growth into shared prosperity for all stakeholders in the tourism value chain".

The Government of Spain intends for the high degree of consensus surrounding Spain's tourism roadmap and its pioneering vision for higher-quality tourism to serve as an example for the European tourism strategy. This includes the vision of tourism as an undeniable economic engine, which in turn serves to redistribute wealth and act as a catalyst for other related economic sectors.

Furthermore, the aim is for both strategies to be aligned in prioritising residents in different regions, making tourism an integrating and cohesive element of our society, as well as an environmentally friendly tool integrated into the fight against climate change, reducing waste generation by the tourism industry and decarbonising transport..

To achieve this objective, Spain's experience in digitalisation, innovation, and social, economic, and environmental sustainability, as reflected in the Spanish strategy, is fundamental.

During the meeting, the Minister and the Secretary of State conveyed to the Commissioner their support for the development of the European strategy, and especially its connection to the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of tourism. Finally, Hereu offered Spain as a possible location for the future European Tourism Academy.

Parliamentary agenda

The meeting with the European Commissioner was the culmination of an intense two-day working agenda in Brussels, during which Rosario Sánchez presented Spain's tourism strategy to the European Parliament. This included several bilateral meetings with the institution's Vice-President, Younous Omarjee, and MEP Daniel Attard, a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and a signatory of the parliamentary report on the European tourism strategy that will be submitted to the Commission, among others.

The purpose of these preliminary meetings was to convey Spain's progress on its tourism roadmap in order to decisively influence the European strategy, also from the parliamentary sphere, thus aligning objectives between Spain and the main European institutions.

Within this framework, a meeting also took place between the Secretary of State and the CEO and Executive Director of the European Travel Commission (ETC), an association that brings together European National Tourist Offices and coordinates the promotion of Europe as a destination, as well as generating market intelligence and cooperation between countries.

Non official translation

Prime Minister's Office of Spain published this content on February 26, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 03, 2026 at 09:34 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]