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