May. Police have feared ETA might be targeting the tourism industry ahead of the busy summer season after a car bomb exploded on March 17th in the resort town of Rosas, on the Mediterranean coast of the Catalonia region, killing a policeman. Hours later police in the resort of Gandia deactivated a second car bomb. Warnings were given about both bombs. In its statement, ETA warned tourists not to travel to Spanish resorts to avoid undesirable consequences and said it had included Spanish touristic-economic interests among its targets.
Tourism is Spain's biggest industry.
It received more than 48 million foreign visitors last year, making it the world's number three tourist destination after France and the United States. ETA has targeted the tourism industry before. In 1996, a bomb exploded in the airport of resort town Reus in northeastern Spain, injuring 35 mostly British tourists. That was part of a series of small bomb attacks in beach towns that year. The group has been linked to about 800 killings since 1968 when it launched its violent campaign for an independent Basque region in northern Spain and southwestern France.