The Spanish idea of a holiday

I did this simple graph with data from the Spanish government’s Instituto de Estudios Turísticos (IET) study Familitur which endeavours to describe the Spanish tourist’s habits and motivations. I try to keep this image in mind when advising clients on content for their destination websites, brochures and media campaigns. With so much beach of their own it is not surprising that sun and sea are not main motivators for travel abroad (but they do like beach destinations that also offer opportunities to interact with the locals). If we were to put together an itinerary for a group of “average” Spanish tourists according to this data it would probably look something like this:

Get up (not too early) and go to see the sites and visit a gallery/museum/monument. Then have a good lunch with the best local food available. In the afternoon do a spot of shopping for souvenirs for friends and family (looking for “typical” things unique to the destination and not global brands). Back to the hotel to freshen up, out for a nice dinner and the to party!

But then we know that since micro-segmentation and big-data there is no such thing as an “average tourist”.