# Regional earnings from tourism/foreign residents



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

After reading/posting on the airport strike thread I began to wonder what the income from tourism and foreign spending in general is region by region.
Is there a source from which one could obtain some idea of this?
In Andalucia, for example, what percentage of profit is repatriated abroad by foreign-owned firms? Foreign-owned airlines presumable pay to use Spanish airports but where do their profits go?
Thinking about our own situation, we pay rent to a foreign landlord direct to his home bank. He pays local taxes of course. We don't have a fancy lifestyle, far from it, so although we use Spanish shops and businesses they wouldn't survive long if they had to rely on our level of spending.
The same with the posh villas rented in summer by wealthy foreigners which are mostly owned by other wealthy foreigners. They are often empty for eleven months of the year.
I guess that many of us take out more than we put in.
Any data on this would be much appreciated.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

mrypg9 said:


> After reading/posting on the airport strike thread I began to wonder what the income from tourism and foreign spending in general is region by region.
> Is there a source from which one could obtain some idea of this?
> In Andalucia, for example, what percentage of profit is repatriated abroad by foreign-owned firms? Foreign-owned airlines presumable pay to use Spanish airports but where do their profits go?
> Thinking about our own situation, we pay rent to a foreign landlord direct to his home bank. He pays local taxes of course. We don't have a fancy lifestyle, far from it, so although we use Spanish shops and businesses they wouldn't survive long if they had to rely on our level of spending.
> ...


I dont know any official figures, but I, like you pay a foreign landlord, who in turn pays local taxes. But altho me on my own cant support local shops etc, I do contribute and spend my money here - and so do you. so the figures of us expats lving in Spain, must contribute a fair amount. The school fees I pay for the international school go back into Spain, cos it filters down. As for those houses that sit empty, well I suspect that they are visited or looked after by locals who get paid, then there are the local taxes and of course they paid Spain for the property to begin with........And I'll bet when the owners are here they spend. One things for sure, I/we dont get much back financially from Spain.......... Oh, and I work and pay taxes etc. We all help in our own small ways!

Jo xxx


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

I wonder how much different nationalities spend.
My daughter has a villa management company and she tells me that mainland Europeans tend to drive to Spain plus they often bring furniture for the villa from home rather than buying in Spain.
The same goes for their food shopping.. they drive to Spain with the car loaded with groceries from their home country.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

MaidenScotland said:


> I wonder how much different nationalities spend.
> My daughter has a villa management company and she tells me that mainland Europeans tend to drive to Spain plus they often bring furniture for the villa from home rather than buying in Spain.
> The same goes for their food shopping.. they drive to Spain with the car loaded with groceries from their home country.



Mind you, **** and booze tend to go the other way!!

Jo xxx


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

jojo said:


> I dont know any official figures, but I, like you pay a foreign landlord, who in turn pays local taxes. But altho me on my own cant support local shops etc, I do contribute and spend my money here - and so do you. so the figures of us expats lving in Spain, must contribute a fair amount. The school fees I pay for the international school go back into Spain, cos it filters down. As for those houses that sit empty, well I suspect that they are visited or looked after by locals who get paid, then there are the local taxes and of course they paid Spain for the property to begin with........And I'll bet when the owners are here they spend. One things for sure, I/we dont get much back financially from Spain.......... Oh, and I work and pay taxes etc. We all help in our own small ways!
> 
> Jo xxx


I would estimate that we spend a lot less than you in the local economy, especially when you consider your school fees. Plus you work and pay taxes.
I'm not so sure that all the houses here were bought from Spanish people or Spanish companies. I've heard of people buying land and bringing over British builders to put up houses. 
We do pay our Spanish gardener/pool man (an idle sod but we like him) and as I said use local shops and businesses although we do patronise French-owned Carrefour for some items such as big sacks of dog kibble.
And Morrisons in Gib for Quorn, gin and custard powder.


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Back in the 60's my folks rented a cottage in med Wales for weekends and at the time there was a lot of resentment by some Welsh of the English coming here and buying houses. The reality was that in fact many small villages relied on the weekenders from the midlands (common 2nd home owners in that area) to stay in business. The cottages and farmhouses 'we' bought had often been empty for years, the young locals wanted central heating and a modern home. The old guy they rented off was as tight as a ducks ass, rent was £4 a week if paid by cheque or £3 a week if £1.50 was by cheque and £1.50 in cash lol. My folks ended up buying a four bedroomed farmhouse with two barns and 17 acres, the price? £3000 by cheque, or £1250 cheque and £1250 cash exchanged in the local solicitors office with a handshake...Oh boy, I dread to think what its worth now; they ended up buying a flat in London due to ill health which was very sad, mom was not well and my old man missed the farm everyday of his life Still, the flat stood me in good stead and allowed me to eventually buy properties which today give me added income.

Sorry, I'm rambling; if you rent a place in Spain you are contributing to the community, your taking nothing away unless there was some real shortage of property to rent for the locals I suppose. The supermarkets will pay tax on what you buy as will the petrol stations, bars and eateries. If they dodge tax it should by and large go into a Spaniards pocket so don't worry about it.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

bob_bob said:


> Back in the 60's my folks rented a cottage in med Wales for weekends and at the time there was a lot of resentment by some Welsh of the English coming here and buying houses. The reality was that in fact many small villages relied on the weekenders from the midlands (common 2nd home owners in that area) to stay in business. The cottages and farmhouses 'we' bought had often been empty for years, the young locals wanted central heating and a modern home. The old guy they rented off was as tight as a ducks ass, rent was £4 a week if paid by cheque or £3 a week if £1.50 was by cheque and £1.50 in cash lol. My folks ended up buying a four bedroomed farmhouse with two barns and 17 acres, the price? £3000 by cheque, or £1250 cheque and £1250 cash exchanged in the local solicitors office with a handshake...Oh boy, I dread to think what its worth now; they ended up buying a flat in London due to ill health which was very sad, mom was not well and my old man missed the farm everyday of his life Still, the flat stood me in good stead and allowed me to eventually buy properties which today give me added income.
> 
> Sorry, I'm rambling; if you rent a place in Spain you are contributing to the community, your taking nothing away unless there was some real shortage of property to rent for the locals I suppose. The supermarkets will pay tax on what you buy as will the petrol stations, bars and eateries. If they dodge tax it should by and large go into a Spaniards pocket so don't worry about it.


That was interesting....
Like you, I bought and renovated properties. In 1980 we bought a quite spacious detached cottage for £5k, renovated it and you can imagine how much we sold it for when we moved from the UK in 2005..We did the same with a couple more properties.
We got fed up with renting them and sold them. Imagine buying anything for £5000 now...
There's a glut of property to buy and rent around here. This is an expensive area which we live in only because my son and dil have a house here and we stayed in it when we first moved from Prague. We didn't know the area well - we had only visited three times - so as it is a quiet, Spanish area with no attractions other than a quiet unspoilt beach we rather liked it and decided to stay. We didn't realise that there are other equally attractive places that aren't so pricey but as we settled down and became involved in the community we intend to stay for a couple more years before moving on.
Our house is the focus of our life here. We spend most of our time relaxing in it and prefer to invite friends for drinks or dinner rather than go to restaurants.
I really enjoy life here but if everyone round here was like us in their spending habits the businesses in our village would close.
Many of the empty houses belong to families from Madrid who come for a month in the summer - I suppose they must spend locally. Others belong to middle-class Spaniards who live and work locally, yet others belong to absentee owners of various nationalities.
I honestly can't see much money from Avenida de Europa flowing into Spanish bank accounts...


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I was a bit worried when we bought our house here in 2005 that locals would resent foreigners buying up property and using it for holiday homes. I have studied housing policy and seen the effects this had on parts of rural England, where villagers can no longer afford to live in the place they were born, and local facilities like pubs and post offices gradually close and never reopen.

But here it was completely the opposite. Like many in Andalucia our town suffered from severe depopulation, from 12,000 in the 1960s to just over 5,000 now. Many empty houses were literally falling down.

For the last ten years Northern Europeans have been buying up property in the old part of town and using local builders and suppliers to renovate them. The locals don't want these quirky old houses, they want nice new regular-shaped ones with garages, so there is no competition for these properties. 

Even though some of these people are only here for a few weeks a year, they pay locals to do repairs and cleaning, and they spend their money in the village bars, shops and restaurants while they are here.

And of course we all have friends and family staying at different times of the year so that's good for the local economy too.


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## Guest (Mar 24, 2011)

Six more night nights and I will be spending my retirement money in Spain.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

folklore said:


> Six more night nights and I will be spending my retirement money in Spain.


Don't stop posting - we are looking forward to hearing about your experiences!


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## Guest (Mar 24, 2011)

Alcalaina said:


> Don't stop posting - we are looking forward to hearing about your experiences!


Thank you, I look forward to sharing our Norte Spain and wheelchair experiences. It wll be interesting to compare LA to Spain.


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