2023-10-03 13:40:29
Well-oiled and at cruising speed, the national tourism sector once again demonstrates its strength in the middle of the high season. And it does so by marking good data that confirms the recovery after the pandemic, since Spain receives almost 10.1 million international tourists in August, 13.9% more than in the same month of 2022. This is confirmed by the latest Tourist Movements Survey, Frontur, published this morning by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
This figure means recovering the muscle that was lost with Covid-19, although it is 0.4% below that of the same month of 2019 and is still far from the historical record reached in the same month of 2017, the best figure recorded so far, when our country received the arrival of more than 10.4 million foreign tourists in August alone.
In this way, the summer in our country ends with the arrival of 28,526,638 international visitors, while, so far this year, the number of tourists visiting Spain exceeds 57.7 million and increases by 19.6 % compared to last year, when 48.3 million arrived during the first eight months of the year. This data reflects that, although the recovery is visible and Spain is approaching the best data in its history, the goal has not yet been reached, since the historical record to date, reached in 2019, when our country accumulated between January and August the large number of 58,182,807 foreign tourists.
Record spending
Spanish tourism is consolidated as one of the most robust engines of the national economy thanks to the revenue from spending made by international visitors. Specifically, in August travelers spent 13,529 million in our country, 19.9% more than in August 2022, according to the latest Tourist Expenditure Survey, Egatur, also published this morning by the INE. Thus, this month of August becomes the best in the history of national tourism in terms of spending, since this figure manages to exceed the 11,765 million that Spain accumulated in the same month of 2019, the best so far.
Specifically, in what has come to be called the most expensive summer in recent years, driven by inflation and rising costs, the average expenditure per tourist is 1,343 euros, with an annual increase of 5.3% . For its part, average daily spending grows by 6.7%, to 173 euros, well above the 1,276 euros that each tourist spent on average in August 2022 and exceeding the 1,162 euros that was consumed on average in August of 2019.
Thus, during the first eight months of 2023, the total spending of international tourists increases by 24.3% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 73,393 million euros. If this accumulated figure is compared with the data from 2019, before the pandemic, tourist spending is 14.9% higher.
The most visited destinations
The main emitting countries in the first eight months of 2023 are the United Kingdom (with more than 11.8 million tourists and an annual increase of 15.6%), France (with almost 8.4 million and an increase of 19.6 %) and Germany (with nearly 7.2 million, 8.9% more), while the most visited destinations in August are the Balearic Islands, with 23.3% of the total, followed by Catalonia (21.1% ) and Andalusia (14.3%).
The main countries of residence of tourists who choose the Balearic Islands are the United Kingdom (with 26.3% of the total) and Germany (25.2%), while the number of tourists visiting Catalonia increases by 11.7% and is above 2.1 million. 26.5% come from France and 12.3% from the United Kingdom. The third main destination community by number of tourists is Andalusia, with more than 1.4 million and an annual increase of 11.2%. The United Kingdom is the main country of origin (with 20.8% of the total), followed by France (14.0%). In the rest of the communities, the number of tourists increased by 39.4% in the Community of Madrid, 19.7% in the Valencian Community and 2.6% in the Canary Islands.
In the accumulated of the first eight months of 2023, the communities that receive the most tourists are Catalonia (with more than 12.3 million and an increase of 24.1% compared to the same period in 2022), the Balearic Islands (with almost 10.5 million and an increase of 8.6%) and the Canary Islands (with more than 8.9 million, 14.5% more).
Those who spend the most
The main emitting countries in terms of spending level in August are the United Kingdom (with 19.8% of the total), France (14.4%) and Germany (10.6%). Specifically, spending by tourists residing in the United Kingdom increases by 15.7% in annual rate, that of those from France by 20.1% and that of those from Germany by 8.4%. Thus, in the first eight months of 2023, the United Kingdom is the country with the highest accumulated spending (18.5% of the total), followed by Germany (11.6%) and France (9.6%).
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