BARCELONA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Spain is set to register a record number of visitors this year, with some 95 million foreign visitors coming to the country and a turnover of over 2 billion euros (2.10 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Spanish tourist industry organization Mesa de Turismo.

With foreign visitor numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels, Spain's tourist industry appears to have fully recovered from the health crisis and is now looking ahead with optimism.

In Barcelona, a major holiday destination in Spain and in Europe, the Barcelona Tourism Consortium is aiming to use tourism to transform the city.

"The COVID experience was traumatic and taught us that we have an opportunity to use tourism to continue transforming our cities, to attract investment, to reach out to the world, to give recognition to new projects from abroad while making our identity and our culture known to the world," Mateu Hernandez, managing director of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, told Xinhua on Friday.

He said the priority is to attract people who want to fill hotels by offering them an extraordinary range of options.

Foreign visitors to Spain have so far spent 11 percent more than last year, says the Mesa de Turismo, and Spanish cities aim to attract more high-spending foreign visitors next year by focusing on such areas as gastronomy, art and culture, festivals, and congresses and conventions.

To achieve the goal, Hernandez said using technology is "fundamental." "We're investing more than 5 million euros into a technological platform that will allow us to forecast and provide our visitors with a better experience," he said.

The organization is now developing a mini-program for the WeChat messaging app that will be launched early next year to help Chinese visitors better enjoy their stay in the city.

"We're helping the tourist sector to understand the consumption and behavior patterns of Chinese travelers, which are different from those of North American or European tourists, and so we're learning from China to better offer the experience Chinese visitors want," Hernandez added.

Tourist spending per Chinese traveler in Spain has surged this year, reaching an average of 3,123 euros (3276.18 U.S. dollars) per trip, a rise of 25 percent compared to 2019, according to the Spanish tourism board, Turesapana. Enditem

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