The Diplomat
Spain was visited by 13.7 million international tourists in the first quarter of the year, 41.2% more than in the same period of 2022. These tourists spent more than 17.2 billion euros, which represents a growth of 44.7% compared to the same quarter last year, according to data published yesterday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The data on tourism in Spain continues to show exponential growth in this year 2023, which is considered to be the year of definitive recovery after the coronavirus, reports Europa Press.
Last March, Spain was visited by a total of 5.3 million international tourists, 30.1% more than in the same month of 2022. These tourists spent almost 6.7 billion euros in our country, which also represents a growth of more than 30% compared to last year.
The statistics on tourist movements at borders (Frontur) made public yesterday show that the United Kingdom was, once again, the main country of origin of international visitors to our country with almost 1.1 million tourists, representing 20.3% of the total and an increase of 29.4% compared to March 2022.
Germany and France were the next countries with the most tourists visiting Spain. Germany brought 673,584 (10.7% more in annual rate) and France 613,323 (34.1% more).
For the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, these figures show that 2023 is being “an extraordinary year for tourism, not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, with higher spending and longer stays”.
This significant increase in the number of tourists was accompanied by an increase in spending. Thus, according to data from the INE’s Tourism Expenditure Survey (Egatur), during the first three months of the year, international tourists spent 44.7% more in Spain than in the same period the previous year, reaching 17,201 million euros. If this accumulated figure is compared with the data for 2019, before the pandemic, tourist spending is 11.9% higher.
In March, the more than five million tourists who arrived in Spain spent close to 6,657 million euros, an increase of 31.1% compared to 2022.
The average expenditure per tourist in March stood at 1,266 euros, with an annual increase of 0.7%. Average daily expenditure grew by 6.6% to 168 euros.
The main countries of origin in terms of the level of expenditure in March were the United Kingdom (with 17.4% of the total), Germany (11.9%) and the Nordic countries (8.9%). Spending by tourists residing in the United Kingdom increased by 14.4% in annual terms, Germany by 2.9% and the Nordic countries by 34.4%.
