In the figures I just gave you, there are three major issues. And, the Spanish government has taken measures to promote tourism based on these issues.
The first is to promote new tourist areas. Through various promotional activities, we are opening up areas not visited much to date and "selling " new tourism products.
The second is to improve the quality of tourism. In short, we are building more tourist facilities of a considerable level of elegance. At the same time, we are making existing tourist areas more attractive by building ancillary facilities for tourism.
The third consists of measures aimed at lessening the seasonal tourist fluctuation. For this purpose, the central government has taken measures to promote tourism outside of July and August.
In any case, the main reason why people come to Spain is to relax. In other words, they come on vacation, with most seeking the sun and beaches. Also, hotel usage is showing 3 % annual growth. Other than hotels, there are what we call "tourist apartments" where regulars like to stay.
As for the amount of money spent in Spain per tourist, at present, the average is being maintained. At the very worst, there is slight drop.
Other than that, there are two things which are working very well in our favor.
The first is that we have a very high number of repeaters. More than 60% Of the tourists in Spain are repeaters. This indicates the feelings of trust that tourists have in Spain as a place of vacation. No other tourist-strong country has such a high rate of repeaters .
The second is the length of stay. The average length of stay in Spain is 14.6 days. This is much longer than in other countries, the average length of stay for other competitive countries on the Mediterranean Sea being just 7 days. If we make the comparison, the average length of stay in Spain is very long indeed.
Having said this, we in our office expect tourism in Spain to grow even further. And, in consideration of tourist trends seen to date, we are making efforts to rid ourselves of certain problems . For example, to lessen the seasonal fluctuations, we are developing new products that will help to correct the imbalance of the conventional sun and beach-seeking tourists. These products include - for example - that which emphasizes culture or nature. We are also making efforts to promote tourism by building ancillary facilities such as golf courses. In this way, we hope to eliminate the seasonal fluctuations.
At the same time, we want to open up new markets. We consider the Asian Pacific region, this including Japan, very important as a new market.
To do this, the Spanish government is taking various measures, the strategy for which I would like to explain briefly.
The first point is that several tourism strategies are being promoted simultaneously on a global scale. The most important aspect for Spain is to select a market. In this sense, the Asian Pacific region can be said one of our target areas. Within our strategy here, we are promoting various forms
