Foreign Tourists Returned to Spain Again

Spain saw a significant increase in foreign tourist arrivals between January and April, with 21 million visitors, a 32.4% increase from last year and just 1.8% shy of the 2019 record. Tourists spent 25,681 million euros, a 36.6% increase from 2022 and a 14.5% increase from pre-pandemic levels, according to surveys by Frontur and Egatur.

Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed that 7.2 million international tourists visited Spain in April, up 18.5% from the same month in 2022. These visitors spent a record-breaking 8.48 billion euros.

The United Kingdom was Spain’s largest tourism source, with 1.4 million visitors in April, marking an 8.7% increase from the same period in 2022.

On average, tourists spent 1,172 euros in April, a 3.6% increase from last year. Additionally, the average daily expenditure increased by 11.6% to 173 euros.

The average length of stay for international tourists in Spain was 6.8 days, similar to the same month last year; the majority of tourists in April stayed between four and seven nights, with more than 3.7 million travelers choosing this modality, an annual increase of 18.3%.

After the United Kingdom, the top source market, France, and Germany are the following two countries with more than one million tourists each, with French arrivals up 26.9% and German arrivals up 2%.

However, visitors from the United States have grown the most, with 60.7% more in April this year than in April 2022. In addition, they have grown 75.4% more between January and April. Italian tourists increased by 29%, and those from Portugal by 29.6%.

Catalonia was the most popular Spanish destination for tourists in April, with 21.3% of the total, after the arrival of 1.5 million travelers, 33% more than last year; the origin of travelers was 25% from France and 10.1% from the United States.

The Balearic Islands came next, with 16.3% of the total, 1.2 million tourists, an increase of 10.5%; in terms of country of origin, 39.7% came from Germany and 18.3% from the United Kingdom.

The Canary Islands are the third destination for many tourists, with 1.2 million in April and an increase of 4.5%; the United Kingdom is the leading country of origin with 36.3% of the total, followed by Germany with 17.8%.

Between January and April, the communities that received the most tourists were the Canary Islands, with almost 4.9 million and an increase of 23.5% compared to the same period in 2022; Catalonia, with 4.3 million and an increase of 45.4%, and Andalusia, with more than 3.1 million, 38.7% more.

Among the other communities, the annual increase of 27.3% in the number of tourists arriving in Andalusia stands out, followed by the Community of Madrid, with a rise of 21.8% over 2022, and in third place is the Community of Valencia, with an increase of 10.7%.