CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism, the business line with which the entity leads the tourism market in the south of Gran Canaria, has granted a total of 1.750 million euros of credit to hotels and tourist accommodation during the first six months of the year. The entity, which in the south of the island has the largest network of branches together with Banco Santander, has increased its exposure to the market with various credit granting operations to the sector during the first half of 2024.
Thanks to its specialization in the tourism sector through CaixaBank Hotels&Tourism, the entity has the capacity to detect and adapt quickly to the needs of this type of companies and support them with the personalized service they require through a team of more than 30 professionals. specialized in the hotel market and the entity's more than 2.200 managers who are experts in business advice.
This volume of credit has been mainly used to finance tourist accommodation renovation projects; acquisition of hotels; development of initiatives linked to innovation and sustainability, as well as financing the daily operations of companies through working capital products.
CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism, which currently has a total loan portfolio to the tourist accommodation sector of 8.400 billion euros and more than 12.000 clients, is positioned as a benchmark for this segment of companies. Last year CaixaBank granted a total of 2.850 million euros of credit to the sector, the highest figure that the entity has allocated to financing tourist accommodation in a single year.
Through CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism, the entity makes available to the hotel market a range of differential products and services to help optimize the profitability of its business and simplify its daily activity, taking into account the needs of the different subsectors: hotels, tourist accommodations and campsites.
According to the latest report on the sector prepared by CaixaBank Research, the tourism sector has started 2024 with excellent records in terms of visitor arrivals, spending and activity. This is the best start to the year since these indicators were compiled. Furthermore, this dynamism occurs after a 2023 that already broke records in the sector. Thus, in the first five months of 2024, 33,2 million foreign tourists arrived in our country, about 4 million more than in the same period of 2023, and international tourist spending grew by 21,8% year-on-year, contributing very positive to the external balance of the economy.
CaixaBank Research predicts that tourism GDP will grow around 5% in 2024 (double what was expected for the economy as a whole) and 3,2% in 2025, thanks to the recovery of the purchasing power of European households in a context of declining inflation, the recovery of the European economy and the perception of greater security that our country offers in a context of high geopolitical instability in the eastern Mediterranean.
