The Diplomat
Spain received 5.2 million international tourists in August, an amount that represents half the pre-pandemic volume of travelers and 112% more than in the same month of 2020.
According to the Statistics on Tourist Movements at Borders (Frontur) and the Tourist Expenditure Survey (Egatur), which is prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and published this week by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, the number of tourists who have visited Spain so far this year has exceeded 15.0 million and spending has reached 5,902 million euros.
“These data consolidate the trend of recovery of international tourism and confirm that Spain is perceived as a safe destination and a country that facilitates international travel thanks to the rapid implementation of the COVID-EU digital certificate and to allow vaccinated people from outside the EU to enter our country, as is the case of the UK and the USA,” said the minister, Reyes Maroto.
“Our goal is to achieve greater international mobility with our main issuers and third markets and for this we are strengthening promotional activities and the dissemination of Travel Safe, which incorporates updated data on the vaccination process, which this week will exceed 80% of the population with complete guideline,” she added.
In August, the average expenditure per tourist was 1,136 euros, 12.9% more than a year ago, and the average duration of trips was 8.4 days. Spending by international tourists in August was also half of that recorded in 2019 (11.9 billion). In the accumulated for the first eight months of the year, total spending reached 16,898 million euros, up 0.7% compared to the same period in 2020.
By Autonomous Communities, the Balearic Islands was the main destination chosen by international tourists, both in terms of the number of arrivals (25.2% of the total, up 188.2% year-on-year) and in terms of its weight in tourist spending (26.8% of the total). It is followed by Catalonia, which accumulated 20.7% of arrivals (134% more year-on-year) and represents 19.1% of spending, and the Valencian Community with 753,864 visitors. In terms of spending, Andalusia increased by 119.9% year-on-year, ranking third with 14.4% of the total.
As for the nationalities of origin of tourists, the French led the number of arrivals in August, with 1.3 million tourists. They were followed by the British (714,668) and Germans (677,599). So far this year, France has been the main outbound market, with more than 3.4 million tourists and an increase of 16% over the same period in 2020. Germany, with almost 2.6 million and an increase of 24%, ranks second. In terms of spending levels, the main outbound markets so far this year are Germany with 2,894 million (17.1%), followed by France with 2,696 million (16%) and the United Kingdom with 1,822 million euros (10.8%).
Three million to promote “destination Spain”
On the other hand, the Council of Ministers yesterday authorized an advance of three million euros for the Spanish Tourism Offices Abroad (OTS) with the aim of meeting the unavoidable expenses for the promotion of Spanish tourism carried out by these Ministries in the first four-month period of the 2022 fiscal year. The objectives of this item are “to improve the image and positioning of destination Spain”, to promote the attraction and loyalty of tourists, to support sales to Spain and to improve connectivity, according to the Ministry.
To carry out these functions, TURESPAÑA has a network of 33 Spanish Tourism Offices Abroad (OTS) in 25 countries around the world, which operate in 47 markets and carry out more than 2,000 tourism promotion activities abroad. Turespaña’s Travel Safe campaign, which seeks to promote Spain as a safe destination, has so far generated more than 98.3 million impressions and 10.6 million views, which has translated into almost 650,000 qualified flight searches.
