Secretary of State for Tourism

The Secretary of State for Tourism (SETUR) is a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of the Government of Spain.

Secretary of State for Tourism
Secretario de Estado de Turismo
Coat of Arms used by the Government
Incumbent Rosario Sánchez Grau since April 17, 2024
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism Secretariat of State for Tourism
Style	The Most Excellent (formal) Mrs. Secretary of State (informal)
Abbreviation	SETUR
Reports to	Industry Minister
Nominator	Industry Minister
Appointer	Monarch
Precursor	Under Secretary of Tourism
Formation	July 4, 1977
First holder	Ignacio Aguirre Borrell
Website	turismo.gob.es

The Secretary of State for the Tourism is responsible for carrying out as many actions as are necessary for the definition, development, coordination and execution of the Government's tourist policies, without prejudice to the competencies of the Interministerial Committee for Tourism, as well as the institutional tourist relations of the General State Administration with international, public or private organizations, and international tourism cooperation, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In addition, and through the Tourism Institute of Spain (TURESPAÑA), whose Presidency corresponds to the Secretary of State, the SET exercises the function of external promotion of tourism. It's also the department responsible for the management of the Fund for the Modernization of Tourist Infrastructures (FOMIT), a fund destined to support the renovation and modernization plans of developed tourist destinations manage by the local administrations and public tourist companies.^[1]

History

The Office of Secretary of State for Tourism was created in summer 1977 after a massive State Administration reform. According to the law that created it, the Secretariat of State assumed the competences of the suppressed Undersecretariat of Tourism and all the bodies that integrated it were transferred to the new Secretariat of State.^[2] The Undersecretariat of Tourism was created in 1952^[3] and was integrated in the Ministry of Information and Tourism, that was also suppressed in 1977 and replaced by the Ministry of Trade and Tourism.

In 1982, the Secretariat of State is suppressed after a government reform that created a new Ministry called Ministry of Transport, Tourism and Communications and its competences were transferred to a newly body named General Secretariat for Tourism. This General Secretariat survived until 2011 but since 1996 to 2000 was subordinated to the Secretariat of State for Trade, Tourism and SMEs with the First Aznar Government, to the Secretary of State for Trade and Tourism from 2000 to 2004 with the Second Aznar Government, to the Secretary of State for Tourism and Trade from 2004 to 2008 with the First Zapatero Government and from 2008 to 2011 to the Secretary of State for Tourism, after being suppressed by the pro-austerity Government of Mariano Rajoy.

Since 2011 the Secretariat of State has been autonomous and mainly focused in managing the Spanish tourism sector which has become one of the most developed and most important sectors in the economy, representing almost a 12% of GDP and a 13% of the employment by 2018^[4] with more than 82 million tourist each year.^[5]

Names

• Secretary of State for Tourism (1977–1981)
• Secretary of State for Trade, Tourism and SMEs (1996–2000)
• Secretary of State for Trade and Tourism (2000–2004)
• Secretary of State for Tourism and Trade (2004–2008)
• Secretary of State for Tourism (2008–present)

Structure

The Secretariat of State is composed of three departments, all of them run by a Deputy Director-General:^[1]

• The Deputy Directorate-General for Tourism Cooperation and Competitiveness.

  It's the department responsible for tourism cooperation and coordination with the competent bodies of other ministerial departments, the Autonomous Communities and local entities, as well as with private agents, for the preparation of the bases and the general planning of tourism policy, especially through the Sectoral Conference for Tourism, the Spanish Council for Tourism and the Interministerial Commission for Tourism; the exercise of international tourism relations of the General State Administration, both bilaterally and with international tourism organizations of a multilateral nature, as well as the exercise of international tourism cooperation, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the information, analysis of opportunities and the support to the implantation abroad of the Spanish tourist companies, in collaboration with the corresponding organs of the General State Administration.

• The Deputy Directorate-General for Development and Tourism Sustainability

  It's the department responsible for the design and implementation of strategies aimed at the development and improvement of tourist destinations based on quality, the promotion of excellence, public-private co-responsibility, social participation, environmental, social and economic sustainability and adaptation to new requirements of demand; the development of plans and programs that promote innovation, quality, sustainability and competitiveness of tourist products with high added value for the client; as well as the promotion of new product categories that contribute to the deseasonalization and deconcentration of the offer, all based on public-public and public-private collaboration; the design, promotion and coordination of strategies that promote the use of emerging technologies in the sector, both in destinations, and in tourism management itself, promoting connectivity, intelligence and presence in networks and the management of other programs of economic support to the tourism sector that are assigned to the Secretary of State for Tourism.

• The Division of Information Analysis and Evaluation of Tourism Policies

From the Secretariat of State also depends organically the Solicitor's Office in the Ministry and the state-owned companies Institute of Tourism of Spain (TURESPAÑA), Paradores and the State Mercantile Society for the Management of Innovation and Tourism Technologies (SEGITTUR).

List of SETURs

No.	Image	Name	Term of Office			Prime Minister
			Began	Ended	Days of Service
1º		Ignacio Aguirre Borrell	12 July 1977	28 February 1981	1327	Adolfo Suárez
2º		Eloy Ybáñez Bueno	9 March 1981[6]	8 December 1982	639	Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo
3º		José Manuel Fernández Norniella[7]	8 May 1996	20 June 1998	773	José María Aznar
4º		Elena Pisonero Ruiz	20 June 1996	6 May 2000	1416
5º		Juan Costa Climent	6 May 2000	6 September 2003	1218
6º		Francisco Utrera Mora	6 September 2003	20 April 2004	227
7º		Pedro Mejía Gómez	24 April 2004	22 April 2008	1459	José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
8º		Joan Mesquida Ferrando	22 April 2008	27 July 2010	2285
9º		Isabel María Borrego	31 December 2011	12 November 2016	1778	Mariano Rajoy
10º		Matilde Asian González	22 November 2016	19 June 2018	574
11º		Isabel Maria Oliver Sagreras	19 June 2018[8]	15 July 2020	757	Pedro Sánchez
12º		Fernando Valdés Verelst	15 July 2020[9]	21 December 2022	889
13º		Rosa Ana Morillo Rodríguez	21 December 2022	17 April 2024	483
14º		Rosario Sánchez Grau	17 April 2024	Incumbent	218

References

1. "Royal Decree 998/2018, of August 3, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism is developed". boe.es. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
2. "Royal Decree 1558/1977, of July 4, by which certain organs of the Central State Administration are restructured". www.boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-12-02.
3. "DECREE of February 15, 1952, organic of the Ministry of Information and Tourism" (PDF). 25 February 1952. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
4. "Sánchez reivindica el turismo como "salvavidas" de la economía y el empleo en España". El Independiente (in European Spanish). 2019-01-21. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
5. "Spain tourist arrivals mark record for 6th straight year in 2018:..." Reuters. 2019-01-16. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
6. "Eloy Ibáñez Bueno,". El País (in Spanish). 1981-04-02. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
7. "JOSÉ MANUEL FERNÁNDEZ NORNIELLA". El País (in Spanish). 1996-05-08. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
8. Hosteltur. "La mallorquina Isabel Oliver es la nueva Secretaria de Estado de Turismo | Economía". Hosteltur: Toda la información de turismo (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-01-21.
9. HD, Redacción (2020-07-15). "Fernando Valdés, nuevo secretario de Estado de Turismo". Hosteleria Digital (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-08-18.