Turespaña’s figures show Spain welcomed around 5 million international passengers during August 2021. This is an increase of 172% compared to August last year.
Moreover, the registered figures represent almost half (48.6%) of all the arrivals registered during the pre-pandemic period, August 2019.
The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, said this positive development confirmed the gradual recovery trend in the sector.
“The progress made in vaccinating the population, together with the instruments put in place to reinforce Spain as a safe destination, such as the COVID-EU digital certificate, have enabled more than five million international air passengers to come to Spain,” the Minister said.
UK leading market for first time this year
The Spanish authorities said the increase in international passengers has been prevalent in all major source countries.
For the first time, the United Kingdom was the leading market this year. The number of passengers arriving from the UK during August tripled compared to 2020. Accordingly, 821,853 Britons arrived in Spain this August, registering a 212.6%increase.
“The UK government’s decision to relax its travel regulations from 4 October is a step in the right direction that will help increase mobility with our main source market. Spain is open to UK residents who are fully vaccinated or travelling with a negative PCR,” Maroto added.
Earlier this month, Spain announced an overall increase of 78% in tourism this year.
International Arrivals
The second source country was Germany, with 803,558 passengers. Their main destination was the Balearic Islands.
They were followed by:
- France – 540,679
- Italy – 491,698
- the Netherlands – 369,269
- Switzerland – 221,369
- Belgium – 203,404
- Portugal – 136,907
- Ireland – 119,781
- Poland – 113,527
- Denmark – 90,951
Balearic Islands most popular destination
Regarding the Autonomous Communities, the Spanish authorities revealed the Balearic Islands accounted for more than a quarter (1.29 million) of the international arrivals.
Following were: Madrid with 923,738; Catalonia with 915,387; Andalucia with 615,809, and the Canary Islands with 574,345 international arrivals.
As for the airports, Palma de Mallorca received the highest volume of international passengers. It accounted for 18.4% of all arrivals.
