The Diplomat
The draft of the General State Budget 2022, submitted by the Government to the Congress of Deputies, provides for an increase of 36’3% for tourism and, in terms of trade, two items of more than 350 million euros to support the internationalization of Spanish companies and attract foreign investment.
Overall, the General State Budget increases the budget for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism by 70%. According to Minister Reyes Maroto, “the budget allocated to industry, trade and tourism for 2022 is the highest in history and will enable us to consolidate the economic recovery, improve productivity, which is the best guarantee of long-term growth, and advance and accelerate the transformation of our production model”.
As far as tourism is concerned, the budget amounts to 1,794 million euros, 36.3% more than in 2021. Of these, 1,556 million correspond to items of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to continue the path of recovery of the tourism sector. The lion’s share will go to the Tourism Sustainability Plans in Destinations, with 743 million euros (60 million more than in 2021). Apart from that, transfers to the Spanish Tourism Institute, Turespaña, amount to 66 million, with an increase of four million over 2021.
As for trade, with a budget of 676 million euros – 21% more than in 2021 -, 243 million of which correspond to the credits of the Recovery Plan, the 250 million to support the financing of the internationalization of companies through different instruments, such as the Fund for the Internationalization of the Company (FIEM), the Fund for Foreign Investment (FIEX) and the Fund for Foreign Investment Operations of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (FONPYME), stand out.
Apart from this, transfers to the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) reach 108 million euros earmarked for joint work promoting the internationalization of Spanish companies and fostering the attraction of foreign investment in Spain, an increase of 19 million with respect to 2021.
