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Spain Recovers 70% Of Pre-Pandemic Tourist Numbers Spain News

November saw foreign tourists levels in Spain recover to 70% of what they were in the same month of 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic outbreak.

A report from the country’s National Statistics Office (INE), which was released on Tuesday, shows that the Spanish tourist sector showed signs of recovery in 2021. In the first 11 months of the year, the country welcomed 28.2 million tourists - an increase of 9.9 million or 54.1% on the previous year, when in spring a strict lockdown was imposed by the Spanish Government.

The INE report also showed that from January to November of last year, the amount of money tourists spent during their visit was 3.75 billion euros in comparison to the figure of just 482 million that was registered in the previous year.

The average expenditure per tourist stood at 1,119 euros, with an annual increase of 6.1%. The average daily expenditure increased by 14.4%, up to 142 euros.

German holidaymakers spent the most while visiting the country accounting for 17.7% of the total or 5,520 million Euros. This was followed by British tourists who spent a total of 4,278 million Euros (13.7%) and the French who spent 4,078 million (13%).

The Ministry for Industry, Trade and Tourism said in a statement that in the month of November, approximately 3.3 million tourists arrived in Spain, an increase of 633% from the same period of the previous year and 72% of pre-Covid levels.

Tourism minister Reyes Maroto stated that the data “confirms that the recovery of international tourism continued its gradual advance in November, despite the rise in cases in our main European markets. Confidence in trips is also greater due to the high levels of vaccination that we have.

Month after month, we see how Spain is getting closer to tourism and spending numbers in 2019, although the uncertainty associated with the current wave could delay the return to pre-pandemic levels.

Spain was the second most visited country in the world during 2019, just behind France who took first place.

Spain also saw British tourists continue to be the largest group of foreign visitors with 597,458 visits up 600% on the previous year and accounting for nearly 17.8% of all foreign visitors.

French and German tourists followed with 496,579 (+709.3%) and 479,403 (+527.4%) respectively.

The increased level of tourism also propelled the country’s economy by accounting for around 12.4% of annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

The first year of the pandemic saw the demise of the industry and the weight of the sector fell to represent just 5.5% of GDP.

Regionally, it was the Canary Islands that attracted the Lion’s share of all international tourists in November accounting for 30.3% of the total. This was followed by Catalunya with 18.1% and Andalucia with 14.5%.

However, the Balearics was the most popular Spanish destination in 2021 with 6,208,598 tourists. This was followed by Catalunya with 5,192,809.

Source

https://ine.es/en/daco/daco42/frontur/frontur1121_en.pdf