International arrivals in Spain almost returned to pre-pandemic levels with an increase of 78.3% this year. Tourism figures show a total of 4.4 million arrivals registered in July.
According to the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE), French visitors accounted for 20% of all arrivals, with 874,189 tourists. In addition, 707,331 tourists came from Germany and 555,183 tourists from the UK. These equalled respective increases of 64.5% and 46.5% compared to 2020.
“The summer has been very good. We have hotels that have done better than in August 2019,” the president of AC Hotels by Marriott, Antonio Catalon, told El Pais.
Spending down
However, international tourism spent less money this year in Spain, marking a 60% decrease, which was €11.5 million in July compared to €28.3 million reported in the same period in 2019.
However, although tourist arrivals have surged from the beginning of the year, overall they have decreased by 25.8% compared to last year. Moreover, the figure shows that international tourist arrivals almost doubled compared to 2020, from 2.4 million to 4.3 million in 2021. However, the figure decreased by 5.5 million compared to 2019.
Spain witnessed the lowest number of international arrivals in February 2021. Then, only 284,311 arrived whereas 4.4 million international tourists were registered in July.
Balearics most popular for international visitors
The Balearic Islands was the best destination for international tourists, with 1,320,144 arrivals, accounting for 30% of all arrivals. Following was the Catalonia region with 18.5% of all arrivals (814,310). The Valencian community registered 607,214, marking 13.8% of all arrivals.
Arrivals from Germany made up for the most tourists registered in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. In Andalucia, arrivals from the Nordic countries made the most visits with 87,166. Meanwhile, Madrid was a top destination for Americans, with 46,459 visiting the city in July.
