GlobalCom’s market barometer: Spain

This week we talked to Josep M. Iglesias Managing Partner of the Barcelona-based agency IT COMUNICACION – GlobalCom PR Network Partner Spain about the latest market trends in his country.*

1. Which industries/markets are booming at the moment in Spain?

Spain is going through a difficult situation which has negatively affected communication budgets from most companies and organizations. This trend runs through all the industry sectors, but some of them are suffering more from the crisis such as the Real Estate. Still, in this scenario, we can spot some sectors that are better positioned to weather the storm and are also the ones that offer more opportunities in terms of communication. A traditional and solid income generator for the country is tourism and an emerging one is biotech.

 

2. What makes Spain currently so interesting for these industries?

Spain is a long standing tourism destination and the different regions, cities as well as tourist related companies are updating and upgrading their offer and also investing more in communication as they realize that the current globalization process poses new challenges and opportunities.

On the one side, mature feeder markets such as Northern European countries need to be tackled with a renewed and more specialized products that go beyond the sun an the sea. On the other side, tourists from emerging economies such as China, Russia and Brazil are becoming increasingly significant not only in terms of the number of visitors, but also, and more importantly, for the money they spend in the country. So, communication wise, there are renewed strategies and ways to communicating to be developed for the old markets and a whole new world of opportunities in the emerging ones.

In the case of biotechnology, they are especially relevant for Spain as the country needs to foster the development of such high-value industries that can attract talent to the country and employ a qualified workforce.

 

3. Why should companies from these industries start doing Public Relations in Spain?

For foreign destinations in the tourist industry Spain is an attractive market as Spaniards have become habit travelers over the last 25 years with the increase of their personal income. They are more and more demanding in terms of where they go, where they stay and what they do there, and so a successful communication is key.

Biotech companies have a good reason to look at the Spanish market as they can find the right partners for developing projects as well as the right environment to attract new talent or start operations.

*The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.