Spain Recovers 53% Of International Tourists In September
Spain News
Published: 03 November 2021 16:22 CET
In September, Spain welcomed 4.7 million international tourists to its shores. This represents 53% of the number of visiting International tourists prior to the Covid pandemic and a whopping 311% more than in the same month of 2020.
The collective number of tourists that have visited Spain this year so far, is almost 19.7 million and according to Statistics on Tourist Movements on the Border (Frontur) and the Tourist Expenditure Survey (Egatur) prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), tourists spent approximately 5,401 million euros. This is six times more than the 964 million that was spent in September of last year.
As for the nationalities of the international tourists visiting Spain, more than 800,000 of them were German, 785,478 were British and 687,480 were French.
The figures for this year so far, show that France topped the list for the number of visitors to Spain with more than 4 million, that is an increase of 23%compared to the same period last year. Germany followed with 3.4 million and an increase of 57%.
The average tourist expenditure in September was 1,074 euros, which equates to an additional 26.9% than this time last year and 52% of the figure (9,617 million) that was registered in 2019.
In regards to the level of spending, tourists from Germany spent 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%).
Reyes Maroto, who is the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism highlighted the fact that “this data confirms that the reactivation of international tourism is underway and month by month a positive trend is consolidated that places Spain as one of the preferred destinations for tourists due to its tourist attractions, but also due to its high levels of security, as 89% of the target population is vaccinated. The outlook for the last quarter of the year is optimistic: the arrival of international tourists will be between 10.7 and 10.9 million, which means recovering 66% of the tourists who arrived in the same period of 2022".
The minister said that the data for arrivals and spending plus the data showing the increase in employment and the decrease in the number of workers in ERTE, which at the end of October reached a new low of 190,000, makes the government “very optimistic and placing Spain at the head of the recovery of international tourism.”
The favourite Spanish destination chosen by international tourists was the Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The islands received 24% of the total number of tourists visiting Spain, 216% more year-on-year and the entirety of tourist expenditure was 26.8% of the total.
The autonomous community of Catalonia was the next favourite with 18.5% of visitors, which is 7.2% more year-on-year and 16.8% of spending.
Source
https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/industria/Paginas/2021/031121-turistasinternacionales.aspx
