MADRID, 4 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Spain received the visit of 13.7 million international tourists in the first quarter of the year, which is 41.2% more than in the same period of 2022. These tourists spent more than 17,200 million euros in our country, which which represents a growth of 44.7% compared to the same quarter last year, according to data published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Tourism data in Spain does not stop showing exponential growth in this year 2023, which is considered the year of the definitive recovery after the coronavirus.
Last March, Spain received the visit of a total of 5.3 million international tourists, 30.1% more than the same month in 2022. These tourists spent almost 6,700 million euros in our country, which also means a growth of more than 30% compared to last year.
The statistics on tourist movements at borders (Frontur) made public today by the INE shows how the United Kingdom was for a month the main country of origin of international visitors to our country with almost 1.1 million tourists, which represents 20, 3% of the total and an increase of 29.4% compared to March 2022.
Germany and France were the next countries with the most tourists who visited Spain. Germany contributed 673,584 (10.7% more in annual rate) and France 613,323 (34.1% more).
For the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, these data show that 2023 is being “an extraordinary year for tourism, not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, with higher spending and longer stays”.
For the head of Tourism, “we are witnessing the consolidation of tourism as one of the main engines of the Spanish economy, which is also reflected in the quality of employment in the sector and in an increasingly varied and innovative offer of destinations.”
This significant increase in the number of tourists was accompanied by an increase in spending. Thus, according to data from the INE (Egatur) Tourism Expenditure Survey, during the first three months of the year, international tourists spent 44.7% more in our country than in the same period of the previous year, reaching 17,201 million euros. If this accumulated figure is compared with the data from 2019, before the pandemic, tourist spending is 11.9% higher.
In March, the more than 5 million tourists who arrived in Spain spent close to 6,657 million euros, which represents an increase of 31.1% compared to 2022.
Average spending per tourist stood at 1,266 euros in March, with an annual increase of 0.7%. For its part, average daily spending grew by 6.6%, to 168 euros.
The main issuing countries in terms of the level of spending in March were the United Kingdom (with 17.4% of the total), Germany (11.9%) and the Nordic countries (8.9%). Spending by tourists residing in the United Kingdom increased by 14.4% in the annual rate, that of those from Germany by 2.9% and that of those from the Nordic countries by 34.4%
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