![International tourists in Barcelona.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 9"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Minor Hotels (formerly NH Hotel Group) has announced its entry into the Middle East after reaching an agreement with Heyazah Real Estate Development to launch a hotel in Saudi Arabia, scheduled to open in 2030. The future hotel will be part of a luxury complex. The project will also include various dining and leisure spaces, according to the company. Despite the international context marked by the conflict in Iran, the Operations Director of Minor Hotels for the Middle East and Africa, Amir Golbarg, emphasizes that Saudi Arabia continues to position itself as one of the most attractive hotel markets globally, thanks to strong economic growth, an increase in tourism, and ambitious national development plans. According to the hotel company, the signing of the agreement is part of the sustained expansion of the Saudi tourism industry, favored by large investments in infrastructure, economic diversification programs, and a growing demand from both domestic and international travelers.
Tourism faces another historic summer
Between January and May, 36.8 million tourists arrived in the State, 5% more than in the same period of 2025
MadridTourism, both in Catalonia and in the State as a whole, faces another historic summer. The data up to May, on the eve of the start of the high summer season, which officially begins in mid-June, show new records. Between January and May, 7.54 million foreign tourists arrived in Catalonia, 4% more than last year and a historic record. In Spain, 36.8 million international tourists arrived, 5% more than in the same period in 2025.
Tourist spending (also including that of domestic travelers) exceeded 50,257 million euros in the State as a whole in the first five months of the year, shattering the record registered between January and May 2025, according to data published this Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Catalonia accounted for more than 18% of this total spending by tourists in the State. Between January and May, tourists spent 9,085 million euros in Catalonia, 13.5% more than in the same period last year.
With this data on the table, the Spanish government is already pointing out that in 2026, 100 million foreign visitors could be exceeded in a year (in 2025, 96.8 million tourists traveled to the State). At the same time, the growth in spending indicates, in the opinion of the Spanish executive, that the trend is being "consolidated", which shows that the amount of money tourists spend when traveling to the State is growing more than the volume of visitors.
A historic May
What has explained this tourism boost in the first five months of the year has been mainly May, after an April and Easter marked by the uncertainty of the war in the Middle East. Thus, it is the first time that in a May the barrier of 10 million tourists has been surpassed. And behind it is the arrival of visitors from the three main issuing markets: the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
"The Spanish tourism model is resilient and for the moment it is resisting well the consequences of the conflict in the Middle East, but we must wait for the coming weeks to see its [final] impact", acknowledge from the Spanish government.
At the time, the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, already pointed out that the military conflict could reconfigure this activity. Thus, he pointed to a transfer to Spain of the tourist demand that until now was held by the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean (for example, Turkey and Egypt) to the Western Mediterranean (Spain, Greece and Italy). Also a growth in last-minute bookings, and also a "reconfiguration" of air transport.
