Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2011, in the middle of the Spanish crisis. Its forecasts, such as a housing recovery by 2018 and nearly a million tech jobs by 2020, are now past or close to their deadlines. Figures such as tourist spending of nearly 50 billion euros are from 2011.
Until now, we in Spain have bet everything on tourism and construction. After the housing bubble burst, construction has to reinvent itself, and the country needs to make the most of its position to refocus and get the most out of its second-largest source of income: tourism.
According to the think tank Fundación Ideas and Gestha (the union of technical staff at Spain’s Finance Ministry), construction, tourism and transport will generate more than a million new jobs by 2025, although construction will take on a greener shade: the secret to Spain’s economic future will be building a business model that is sustainable economically, socially and environmentally.
Spain is already a benchmark for food and wine tourism, and although its coastline has brought in close to 50 billion euros in tourist spending, it could still be exploited much further. On top of that, Spain is well placed to take advantage of new sectors where we have the chance to create close to 3 million new jobs. These sectors are renewable energy, eco-industries, ICT, biotechnology, aerospace, the cultural industries and social services. Let’s look at them in detail.
Tourism
Several entrepreneurs have built good business ideas around niche tourism, which could include gay and lesbian tourism, wine tourism and food tourism, and even nightlife tourism, where some travel agencies managed to win over younger tourists and draw them to Ibiza and the Balearic Islands on low-cost trips.
Although the travel agency business has been hit by the crisis, agencies will also have to reinvent themselves and offer new business formulas, even if it would be hard to get back to the number of agencies that existed before the crisis. And remember that tourism isn’t only about chasing the sun: Spain is a country of culture and inland landscapes, with a history that has left a great legacy of interest to visitors.
Businesses that can be built around tourism: hotels, paradores (Spain’s state-run hotels, often in historic buildings), restaurants, coastal tourism, inland tourism, ski tourism, cultural tourism, wine routes, and the list goes on.
The food business
Spanish cuisine attracts interest abroad, which is why many Spanish companies are carving out a place in foreign markets. Spanish products such as wine, ham, cured sausages, fruit and vegetables, and fish are already making strong inroads in markets like Japan, China, France and the United States.
The future of this business lies in exporting our products, which will create hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs in transport, logistics, foreign trade, research and so on.
Green construction and sustainable architecture
If there’s one thing we’re experts at in Spain, it’s building. In fact, some of our best architects are currently developing large-scale projects in the United States and South America. Spain has some of the best infrastructure companies in the world, among them OHL and ACCIONA. Housebuilding isn’t dead; in fact, it’s expected to pick up again by 2018, although it will be green construction, or what is often called sustainable architecture, that respects the environment.
The secret of the new construction will lie in new techniques and new materials. More than new building, what will launch growth in this business will probably be, first of all, home renovation, along with designing new models that encourage savings and are therefore more environmentally sustainable. We already have an example of what the future might bring in the first smart street in Catalonia. Home automation will play a very important role in construction.
Biotechnology and nanotechnology
Spain is already a benchmark in nanotechnology, with great scientists in the field. Sadly, our country will become a leader both in nanotechnology and in biotechnology applied to the food and livestock industries.
I say sadly because, while this new science will play a very important role in the development of the Spanish economy, the way it is being applied alters the natural course of the food humans eat. This industry will allow Spain to compete abroad on price and on new product innovation, because a price war is being fought internationally thanks to genetically modified food, and Spanish industry doesn’t want to be left behind.
The technology industry
Until now, Spain hasn’t stood out for its technology companies or startups, perhaps because no one saw that this was the future. Now, however, it seems we’re finally getting our act together in this sector. In Spain alone, the technology industry could create close to a million new jobs by 2020: digital content, mobile apps, startups, telecommunications and information technology.
The truth is that Spain now has many more initiatives for tech entrepreneurs than for traditional entrepreneurs, with projects such as Wayra and BlueVia, whose mission is to take part in these new entrepreneurs’ projects.
Hybrid vehicles
As soon as Spain stops putting obstacles in the way of the vehicle of the future, the country could become a benchmark in building hybrid vehicles, not only for sales at home but for export.
The electric car business will require large listed companies to change their business models: if all goes well and no one halts its development, what we now call petrol stations will become charging stations (electrolineras, as they are called in Spanish). The current battle is: “Who will dominate the charging station business, and how much will other industries lose when petrol is no longer needed?”
If everything goes to plan and the oil industry reaches an agreement with the electricity companies, Spain could become one of the biggest exporters of electric vehicles.
Renewable energy
The businesses of the future will be green, but Spain, despite having an ideal climate and great professionals in the sector, still doesn’t seem to have been able (or willing) to strike a balance between renewables, profits and no subsidies. We still import 80% of the energy we consume.
In the short term, R&D in this sector will create jobs, and in the long term, the arrival of renewables will be inevitable. We can’t give an exact date, as a lot of interests are at play behind the scenes in this business, but by 2025 we probably won’t need to import 80% of our energy and could bring that down to just 30%. Then again, maybe we should swap university graduates for 13-year-olds who can work out why solar energy isn’t profitable and tell them how to generate more (A 13-year-old solves the solar energy puzzle).
We covered the other businesses that will create jobs in the future in our article “Business trends for 2012–2015“, where we discussed businesses related to health, wellness and ecology, without forgetting that Spain will be a country of “old people”, so our elderly will need attention and care. Elderly care will very likely become one of the most profitable businesses and one of the biggest job creators in the very near future.
That said, all of this job creation may or may not happen by 2020. Until then, Spain will go through some very bad years economically, and we don’t expect jobs to be created over the next three years, so we keep saying that starting your own business is a viable way out.
Featured image: afloresm, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
