Bankinter | According to INE (Spanish Statistical Office) 83.7 million foreign tourists visited Spain last year, an increase of 1.1% over 2018. Their spending also broke a record, rising 2.8% to €92.278 million. Among the main tourist destinations, the ones that did well were Madrid +7,0%, the Autonomous region of Valencia +3,9% and Andalusia +3,4% and the ones that didn’t were The Canary Islands -4,4% and the Balearic Islands -1,2%.
In opinion of the Bankinter’s analysis team, tourism keeps growing, exceeding expectations at the beginning of the year, and despite unforeseen circumstances like the bankruptcy of the tour operator Thomas Cook.
We expect the slowdown trend to continue in 2020 and we don’t rule out a decrease in the number of foreign tourists. The recovery of destinations such as Tunisia, Turkey or Egypt will continue to affect key tourist destinations like The Canaries and Balearic Islands. Urban destinations should do well due to the improvement of the macro environment in Europe.
