Foreign tourism in Spain has been detected during the recovery period after the pandemic. However, it still does not reach the figure it registered before the arrival of Covid-19, but rather points to 1.6% less with the arrival of 37.5 million international tourists. In the first half of the year, these tourists spent a total of 46,011 million euros in our country, 28.3% more than in the same period of the previous year.
Despite the fact that the number of tourists sits below the historical 2019 data, they have recorded maximums in the daily disbursement per tourist, going from 155 euros in June 2019 to 188 euros at the end of last June, a 21, 3% mass If the accumulated spending figure is compared with the data from 2019, before the pandemic, tourist spending is 14.3% higher. According to surveys published this Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE) on tourist entries (Frontur) and associated spending (Egatur), the spending of international travelers has been reaching a record month after month since last November.
In June Spain received the visit of 8.3 million international tourists, 10.9% more than in the same month of 2022, with the United Kingdom being the main issuing market with almost 2 million tourists, 23.8% of the total. The Balearic Islands were the main destination chosen by international tourists to visit Spain, followed by Catalonia and Andalusia. Most of them arrived without a tourist package with a stay of between four and seven nights, according to the Statistics on Tourist Movements at Borders (Frontur).
The average cost per tourist is 1,275 euros, with an annual increase of 5.9%. For its part, average daily spending grew by 7.9%, to 188 euros. The average duration of international tourist trips is 6.8 days, which is 0.1 days less than in June 2022, according to data from the Tourist Expenditure Survey (Egatur).
If this pace continues, the year will close with better figures than those of 2019, the year before the pandemic, which had set records, both for the entry of tourists (83.7 million) and for spending (91.910 million). Spending in that month stood at 10,606 million euros, 17.5% above June last year, and 10% higher than the 9,600 million in June 2019, before Covid. It has been marking monthly record highs since last November.
Among the large emitters, only France improves arrival figures compared to pre-pandemic values. The United Kingdom continues to lead visits, with 7.75 million between January and June; followed by France, with 4.86 million, and Germany, with 4.85 million. Therefore, 530,000 British and 480,000 Germans are “missing” to reach the numbers for June 2019, although the slowest is the German market, which grows around 10% over last year, half of what the countries do. other large emitters.
Of the large issuers, the greatest expenditure was made by the British (8,294 million). Despite the certain weakness of the German market, those who come spend more, since 5,682 million were abandoned in that period, ahead of the French (3,630 million). In accumulated data for the first semester, the most visited community was Catalonia, with almost 8 million, especially French and British, but the figure for June places the Balearic Islands (with 2 million entries) as the first community.
After Catalonia come the two archipelagos (6.8 million accumulated in the Canary Islands and 5.7 million in the Balearic Islands), followed by Andalusia (5.5 million), the Valencian Community (4.4 million) and Madrid (3.7 million). .
Among the large recipients of tourists, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and the Valencian Community are above the figures before the pandemic. Those values do not reach Catalonia (the furthest away, with close to a million fewer tickets), Madrid and Andalusia, which registered 160,000 and 100,000 fewer, respectively. Most tourists arrive by plane (31.5 million of the 37.5 total), with an accumulated growth of 23.7% over last year, and another 5.3 million entered by road.
