Spain’s International Passenger Numbers In August Up 172% On 2020
Spain News
Published: 20 September 2021 14:53 CET
Spain welcomed more than five million international passengers in August, representing an increase of 172% on the same month in 2020.
Reyes Maroto, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, said that the data was "positive because it confirmed that the trend of gradual recovery of international travellers that began last March was now consolidating”.
She said, “The advancement of the vaccination of the population together with the instruments launched to reinforce Spain as a safe destination, along with the introduction of the COVID-EU digital certificate, have allowed more than 5 million international air passengers to come to Spain.”
The minister also praised the UK government after it made the announcement on Friday that those who were fully vaccinated and returning to England from Spain and other European destinations would no longer need to take a pre-departure Covid test.
Maroto said that the UK’s changes to the traffic light system which would come into force from October 4 were a step in the right direction and would help increase mobility with Spain’s main tourist market.
“Spain is open to residents of the United Kingdom who have been vaccinated with a full regimen or who travel with a negative PCR."
Recently published data from the Spanish government shows that British passenger arrivals have tripled with 821,853 visiting the country in August. The majority of these travellers visited the Balearic Islands.
Germany sent the second largest number of travellers to Spain in August with 803,558 arrivals, many of which were also visiting the Balearic Islands.
Spain was also visited by many other European travellers including those from France (540,679), Italy (491,698), Netherlands (369,269), Switzerland (221,369), Belgium (203,404), Portugal (136,907), Ireland (119,781), Poland (113,527) and Denmark (90,951).
Visitors by Autonomous Community
Unsurprisingly, it was the Balearic Islands that attracted the lion's share of the international travellers with 1.29 million visitors or 25.9%.
This is followed by the capital Madrid which attracted 923,738 visitors or 18.4% of the total. Then comes Catalonia with (18.3% and 915,387), Andalusia (12.3% and 615,809), the Canary Islands (11.5% and 574,345) and the Valencian Community (11.4% and 570.081).
It was Catalonia and Madrid which were the communities that registered the highest interannual growth at 249.6% and 213.2%, respectively.
By airports, Palma de Mallorca was the one that received the highest volume of international passengers (18.5% of the total), followed by Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas (18.4%), Barcelona (17.1%), Malaga (10.4%), Alicante (7.3%), Ibiza (5.5%), Tenerife South (4.3%), Valencia (4.1%), Gran Canaria (2.7%) and Fuerteventura (2.2%).
More than 60% of Spain’s international passengers travelled to Spain in August via a low-cost airline.
Source
https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/industria/Paginas/2021/200921-pasajeros_internacionales.aspx
