Rodríguez Uribes claims the importance of sport within the Spanish tourism industry

• The president of the Superior Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, has participated in the official inauguration of the third edition of Fitur Sports, thematic section of the International Tourism Fair that serves as a meeting point between the sports industry and the tourism industry.

• During his speech, Rodríguez Uribes highlighted the 36 million euros allocated by the Government to the promotion of sustainable sports tourism and the prestige of Spain as an organizing country for major international sports events.

Madrid, 23 January 2025.- The President of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, participated this Thursday in the 45th edition of the International Tourism Fair (Fitur), the largest event in the tourist industry in Spain, which this year gathers 9,500 companies and expects to receive until Sunday more than 250,000 visitors to the IFEMA site.

Rodríguez Uribes has inaugurated the third edition of Fitur Sports, one of the ten thematic sections of the Fair and which aims to serve as a meeting point between representatives of the sports and tourism industries, with more than one hundred speakers in thirty sessions during three professional days and exhibitions for the general public during the weekend.

The president of the CSD has claimed during his speech the weight of sport in the Spanish tourist industry and in the generation of employment and wealth.

“The sum of nature tourism and sports tourism is still far from sun and beach tourism or cultural tourism, but it has enormous growth potential. And that is excellent news,” said Rodríguez Uribes.

According to the latest Yearbook of Sports Statistics, 5.3 million trips in Spain were mainly motivated by sport in 2023, with an associated expenditure of 2,845 million euros, which represents 4.2% of leisure trips for residents in Spain and 1.2% of foreign visits.

Likewise, the president of the CSD has pointed out the “growing weight of sport in our country’s GDP” and in employment.

In 2023, employment linked to sport in all its areas reached the record figure of 246,700 people, while the number of companies dedicated to this sector stood at 41,180.

Promotion of sustainable sports tourism and the organization of major events by the CSD

During his speech, Rodríguez Uribes highlighted the two main lines of action in the field of sports tourism that, “undoubtedly, have contributed to reaching record figures both in number of foreign visitors and in spending on destinations”.

First, within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, the CSD has designed a line of grants to promote sustainable sports tourism. The call, coming from European funds, amounted to 36 million euros and 124 public entities have benefited from it.

A further EUR 3.9 million from the NextGeneration funds has been distributed by the CSD to increase levels of sports practice through a coordinated network of physical activity promoters in rural areas (PAFER Network).

These grants, as Rodríguez Uribes stressed, “are serving to promote a joint offer of physical activity and tourism fundamental in the creation of stable employment and, therefore, for the social and territorial cohesion of our country.”

Secondly, the president of the CSD has highlighted the government’s support for the holding of major international sporting events.

“I think we have to feel great pride that our experience and our organizational capacity is recognized outside our borders,” she said, adding that the last examples of “excellent organization” are the Women’s Champions League final in Bilbao, the Basketball Pre-Olympic in Valencia, the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup in Malaga or the Karate World Championship for nations in Pamplona.

Rodríguez Uribes recalled that “in the coming years Spain will host several international championships”, such as the final of the World Triathlon Series (Pontevedra), the World Olympic sailing class (Valencia), the World Canoeing Championship (Lleida), the European Indoor Track Athletics (Valencia) or the European Men’s Handball (together with Portugal and Switzerland).

“Five years of work that will culminate in 2030 with the World Cup, the most important challenge in sports since the Barcelona Games’92,” he said.

During his visit to Fitur, the president of the CSD has also visited, among others, the thematic stands of the Municipalities of Oliva, Santa Lucía de Tirajana and Gandía and the Provincial Council of Albacete, where he has been able to talk with their mayors and institutional representatives about the main sports projects in these territories.

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