Luxury: strategic sector?

Due to its particular trend during the crisis, there are many people who have come to consider that the luxury sector can be an important element in the gear of the economic recovery. Its actual increase and the optimistic future expectations makes us believe that it will be one of the keys for growth and job creation, not only in Catalonia, but rather in the rest of Europe. Tourism and internationalization of the country plays a leading role in this belief. Maria Isabel Borrego, State Secretary of this field, said, during the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) fair, that “tourism should be considered of great importance for economic recovery because, according to general data of 2012, Spain was the second country in terms of arrival and the first one as a tourist destination".

50 million foreign tourists landed in Spain last year, spending 55 million euros, which represent a total economic surplus of 331 billion. In this sense, the most representative target is people from the Arab Emirates. Borrego concretized that the tourists coming from the Golf countries "come to spend more than the average." So, luxury tourism also becomes one of the great hopes for the future.

Luxury, important but not fundamental
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Despite the numbers seems to attest this trend, may we consider the luxury sector as a strategic aspect for the economic recovery? According to Miren Etxezarreta, Professor Emerita of Applied Economics at UAB "luxury doesn’t pull the wagon of resurgence." Etxezarreta ensures that this sector can make its contribution, but it won’t be the cornerstone that is going to sustain the output of the current crisis. On the other hand, as we already mentioned in other sections, she focuses on not to trust everything to the tourism "as it’s being done actually in Catalonia and Spain." The professor stresses that tourism "is a very important issue, a prominent item" but there must be others.

Another person who is contrary to this interpretation is Miguel Angel Sola, the manager of Luxury Dreams Group. He goes beyond saying that "the luxury sector will never collaborate with the public one because it demands very high prices". He specifies that, in this way, "no collaboration is possible, not only because of the political factor, but rather for an economic reason given that it demands money for everything." Sola recognizes that, in this sense, there are many differences between Barcelona and Madrid, and the Catalan capital is still ahead of the state capital.

Definitely, the luxury market is not a key element for the economic recovery of Catalonia and Spain but it definitely plays an important role in it. In the last years, we have been witnesses of the growth of this sector in comparison to the other ones even with the financial crisis, and it seems that this substantial growing will continue in the future. Barcelona has taken advantage of it in all the areas where luxury items and services can be found positioning itself as a great European city for luxury. This important industry of Barcelona has been benefited mainly by tourism as tourists are the ones who have spent the largest amount of money, especially the ones who come from Russia and the United Arab Emirates.