The Diplomat
Spain received 4.7 million international tourists in September, an amount that represents 53% of the pre-pandemic volume of international tourists and 311% more than in the same month of 2020.
So far this year, according to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, the number of tourists who have visited Spain has reached 19.7 million. In addition, tourist spending has reached 5,401 million euros, six times more than the 964 million of September last year, according to the Statistics of Tourist Movements at Borders (Frontur) and the Tourist Expenditure Survey (Egatur) prepared by the National Institute of Statistics.
These data “confirm that the reactivation of international tourism is underway and month by month a positive trend is consolidating that places Spain as one of the preferred destinations for international tourists for its tourist attractions, but also for its high levels of security, having 89% of the target population vaccinated,” said the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto. “The prospects we have for the last quarter of the year are optimistic: international tourist arrivals will be between 10.7 and 10.9 million, which means recovering 66% of the tourists who arrived in the same period of 2022,” she added.
By Autonomous Communities, the Balearic Islands was the main destination chosen by international tourists, both in number of arrivals (24% of the total and 216% more year-on-year) and by its weight in tourist spending (26.8% of the total). It is followed by Catalonia (18.5% of arrivals and 16.8% of spending) and Andalusia, with 687,383 visitors.
As for the nationalities of origin of tourists, Germans led the number of arrivals in September, with more than 800,000 tourists, followed by British (785,478) and French (687,480). So far this year, France is the main outbound market, with more than four million tourists and an increase of 23% over the same period in 2020. Germany, with 3.4 million and an increase of 57%, ranks second. Regarding the level of spending, the main outbound markets so far this year are Germany, with 3,849 million (17.5%), followed by France, with 3,216 million (14.7%), and the United Kingdom, with 2,647 million euros (12.1%).
