BRAINTRUST, a leading consulting and professional services firm in the tourism sector, has released a new industry report analyzing Spanish households' travel spending in relation to their income. It concludes that tourism has become more accessible to everyone and that, following the pandemic, it has become a priority for families, representing a recurring expense.
Spaniards spend an average of 3% of their annual income on travel.
BRAINTRUST has conducted an in-depth analysis of travel spending since 2016 and found that Spaniards spend around 3% of their annual income on travel. To reach this conclusion, BRAINTRUST analyzed the last six years of tourism spending by each household, taking into account the sum of air travel, accommodation, and package tours.
BRAINTRUST's analysis shows that, depending on household income, travel expenditure accounts for 1% in households earning less than €1,000, 2% in households earning between €1,000 and €2,000, 3% in households earning between €2,000 and €3,000, 4% in households between three thousand and four thousand euros, between 4% and 5% in households between four thousand and five thousand euros, and up to about 6% in households with incomes above five thousand euros.
Lower-income households account for 20% of total travel spending.
According to a study conducted by the consulting firm BRAINTRUST, it is interesting to observe the relationship between household type and household spending on travel.
Thus, according to BRAINTRUST data, 20% of travel expenditure would be accounted for by 32% of households, corresponding to households with the lowest purchasing power, specifically those with less than two thousand euros, while at the other end of the scale would be households with more than five thousand euros of income, representing almost a third of total travel expenditure in the source market.
According to Ángel García Butragueño, Director of Tourism at BRAINTRUST: "The pandemic has been a turning point in people's life priorities, and our data reveals some very important conclusions that show that although higher-income households still contribute a large share of the pie, lower-income households also allocate a significant portion of their purchasing power to leisure, including travel, which helps maximize people's life experiences. At BRAINTRUST, we believe that although tourism remains a luxury good, all social classes have access to it, and the more income people have, the more they spend on leisure and travel."
According to José Manuel Brell, Partner in charge of Quantitative Studies and Models, and the Tourism and Leisure Industry at BRAINTRUST: "It is very interesting to learn about the priority of leisure and travel for Spaniards, so that tourism companies can plan their future strategies. In a context of high inflation, all executives are wondering whether we are still in a bubble that will soon burst or whether we should manage the industry in a post-pandemic era with high demand forecasts, an aspect that marks a different era where tourism spending is not only becoming recurrent but has also become a priority in Spanish households ahead of aspects such as technology or fashion, to give an example, In most cases, at least 80% of pre-pandemic travel spending will be recovered by 2022, with 2023 being the year of full recovery, as we have stated in previous studies.
