Tourism Economics , 2009, 15 (1), 121–138 The financial structure of the Spanish hotel industry: evidence from cluster analysis MARÍA J ESÚS SUCH DEVESA Department of Statistics, Economic Structure and International Economic Organization, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Alcala, Antiguo Colegio de Mínimos, Plaza de la Victoria 2, 28802 Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain. E-mail: mjesus.such@ uah.es. LAURA PARTE ESTEBAN Department of B usiness and Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Management, Spanish National University for Distance Education (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey 11, 28040 Madrid, Spain. E-mail: lparte@ cee.uned.es. ANTONIO GARRE MARTÍNEZ Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Spain. E-mail: antonio.garre@ grupobbva.com. Multinational Spanish hotel chains currently are undergoing a process of internationalization. This process demands a new approach to their financial strategies and thus will modify, or already has modified, their traditional financial structures. The authors define companies’ financial structure on the basis of a wide set of financial ratios grouped by factorial analysis. The data retrieved highlight commonalities among liquidity ratios, structure, size, growth and profitability. The authors identify clusters among companies present- ing consolidated financial information and find that the financial structures of the leading companies have some influence within the hotel sector, particularly with regard to internationalized businesses. Keywords : financial structure; cluster; indebtedness; empirical research; hotel industry The Spanish tourism sector has undergone spectacular development over the course of the 20th century, experiencing especially intense growth and change in the second half of the century. Given this observation, it is surprising that there have been relatively few economic studies on the financial aspects of this sector, which has become one of the most important in the Spanish economy. The general network of relationships between the Spanish financial system and the companies of Spain’s hotel sector has played a proactive and significant role in the configuration of the capital structure of the sector’s leading companies.