After scanning 40 rolls of negatives —a grand total of 1,166 photos— I rediscovered quite a few things I’d forgotten but also saw how much tourism in Spain has changed over the last 25 years. Let’s unpack…
I traveled a ton that year, more than I ever had in my life… including when I’d lived in Cádiz from 1998-99 & saw lots of Europe for the first time. Revisiting familiar places & discovering new ones inspired me to explore deeper, improve my language skills & dive into local histories. That took considerable work since the early internet offered so little content back then. Often, the only source of info about a destination was the TI office (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) or a guidebook along the lines of Lonely Planet or Time Out. Putting together the pieces was a challenge when even finding a local map could be difficult.
Then again, destinations had not become overcrowded like today. Selecting a hotel or hostal proved easy since there wasn’t a lot to choose from! As I looked at photos of the San Martín bridge in Toledo from May 2000, the one thought I couldn’t get out of my head was: where are all the people? Travel has become such a big business for Spain —providing almost 13% of GDP in 2024— so I thought actual numbers might be shocking. They are.
Keep in mind that the numbers above come from whatever official organization I could find online… that actually publishes such old data. So this may not be “academic paper accurate”, but the numbers are telling. In 25 years, Spain has more than doubled the amount of international tourists —and that figure doesn’t even include national tourism! Income from tourism has skyrocketed (5.5 billion pesetas to 126 billion €), airports grew, & the asterisk by easyJet is a reminder that they were the ONLY low-cost airline operating in Spain in 2000. No idea how many are here now.
Also of note: the USA is the fifth-largest country travelling to Spain, but #1 from outside the EU & the UK. France has often been the world’s top international destination, but check out how Spain has narrowed the gap over the last 25 years. A gazillion other factors exist for comparison, but I find these few statistics revealing. Although I haven’t done the same comparison for Portugal & Argentina, the general trend surely follows that of Spain.
Of course, the past couple of years have seen considerable pushback against mass tourism… water pistols, gigantic demonstrations & a general knockdown of Airbnb. But let’s consider some of the positives as well: amazing restoration of monuments, new buildings open to visitors, recovery of local trades & food items, better transportation all around & hopefully personal connections that make the world a much smaller place.
How does your 2000 compare to today?
It’s been great fun looking back at a defining moment of my life. However, I won’t resume scanning negatives until March 2026. Stay tuned! I guess life over the holidays wasn’t exciting enough to document 25 years ago!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this glance at the past. Read about the genesis of this project, & please leave a comment if you also remember this particular time & place.
© 2000 Robert Wright. Any copying, usage, or reproduction of the images above requires owner consent.