The Spanish Embassy's Tourism Office held a conference in Tokyo titled ‘Spain Talks: Caring for the Future,’ focusing on tourism sustainability. This was the first Spain Talks in Asia, where the governments’, destinations’ and tourism industries’ leaders from Spain and Japan discussed over-tourism, harmony with local residents' lives, the geographic dispersion of tourism, and the creation of experiential value.

Spain, one of the biggest tourism counties in the world, has been facing a variety of tourism challenges. Iñigo de Palacio, the Spanish Ambassador to Japan, made his opening remarks, "The challenge is not to reject tourists but to manage them appropriately. Striking a balance among local residents, businesses, and travelers is crucial.”

イニゴ・デ・パラシオ駐日スペイン大使

"We must implement measures, formulate public policies, and have a strategy to manage tourism,” Miguel Sanz, Director General of Turespaña (the Spanish Tourism Promotion Bureau) said. “Both Japan and Spain face common challenges, and at the same time, Spain’s national tourism strategy, ‘España Turismo 2030,’ and Japan’s tourism policies share common features, such as the regional distribution of tourist flows and economic opportunities, as well as the utilization of technology and AI.”

ミゲル・サンス総局長

Spain places ‘residents’ as a pillar of the tourism strategy 

The tourism industry in Spain becomes a key industry with 100 million visitors a year, 13% GDP and 3 million jobs. Sanz explained that Directorate General for Tourism Policy was formed in the wake of the pandemic to strengthen supply-side policies, including digitalization, enhanced competitiveness, and economic, social, and environmental sustainability for higher social and economic values.

He said, “Without sports from residents, a tourism destination does not have competitiveness,’ referring to  ‘España Turismo 2030’ that centers on residents for the first time in addition to travelers, business operators, employees and tourism management bodies. 

Also, the strategy adds the seasonality of employment, waste generation, water consumption, and travel times for both tourists and residents as new tourism criteria.

Takeshi Nakano, Director of the International Tourism Department, Japan Tourism Agency, said, “It is crucial for us not only to increase traveler numbers but also to properly manage the growing influx of visitors and provide a high-quality tourism environment,” referring to the Japan’s new Basic Plan for the Promotion of a Tourism-Oriented Nation.

第1セッションでは両国の戦略が語られた

Challenges in matured destinations, Barcelona and Kyoto

International visitors to Barcelona increased from 1.7 million in 1992 to 20 million in 2025, and as a result, the city has suffered from concentration of tourists on particular destinations, burdens on public transportation or rise in housing prices due to an increase in short term rentals (STR). 

Raul Guerra, Director of the Asia-Pacific Division at the Catalan Tourist Board, introduced that the city has made a variety of restrictions to control tourism, such as temporal suspension of building new hotels, change of rules on STR, new anchorage prices of cruise ships or limited tourists of a guided  tour.

第2セッションではオーバーツーリズムが指摘される都市として京都、バルセロナ、新興都市として岐阜県とラ・リオハ州がそれぞれの取り組みを共有した

Shinji Nishiyama, Tourism Policy Supervisor for Kyoto City, explained, “While noting the concentration of visitors at specific sites—such as Kiyomizu-dera, Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari, and Kinkaku-ji—where over-tourism is a concern, but even in Arashiyama, there are hardly any people once you step off the main street.” He stressed the need to disperse visitors across different times and locations.

Referring to STR in Kyoto City as well, he revealed that there are anxieties among residents and troubles with tourists. Kyoto City now discusses to amend the current rule to strengthen restrictions. He said, “It does not mean that all STRs will not be permitted. The point is that right management is required.” 

For sustainable tourism experiences

At Spain Talks in Japan, creation of sustainable tourism experiences was discussed from the tourism industry’s and policy maker’s perspective. 

Spain is driving a tourism policy for practical tourism management tailored to the specific characteristics of each region, in which local governments, businesses, and residents share challenges within their communities, and the national government provides financial and institutional support.

In this sense, Spain focuses on restructure and extend the exiting tourism resources, rather than creating new products, consolidating experiences previously offered individually across various locations into a network of operators, and rolling them out through a joint sales framework under a unified brand and story. This strategy seeks to go beyond conventional mass tourism to offer the added value sought by highly specialized and diverse travelers.

第3セッションでは、日本旅行業協会理事長の蝦名邦晴氏（右）も登壇。日本の旅行業界の立場から、地域資源を旅行商品として磨き込み、付加価値の高い体験として造成・販売していく重要性を示した

Sanz, Director General of Turespaña, emphasized that the core of future tourism management lies not in pitting tourism growth against the preservation of local lifestyles, but in designing a way for the two to coexist by matching local stories with international demands and digitalizing customer journeys. 

イベントでは「Spain Talks Awards」の表彰式もおこなわれた。日本国内でスペインを「サステナビリティに真摯に取り組むデスティネーション」として発信し、その認知向上に貢献したメディアやコンテンツクリエイターを選出