Between January and November of last year, Spain received more than 67.4 million international visitors, with their spending exceeding 81 billion, the National Statistics Institute (INE) confirmed yesterday. This is a good figure when compared with the same period last year, when 28.2 million foreign tourists were received. However, if it is compared with the same period in 2019, before the coronavirus paralysed the world, the figure is somewhat less sweet, as it confirms that Spain has lost nearly 12 million travellers due to the pandemic, as at that time 79.4 million visitors were received between January and November.
Despite this, for the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, “2022 will be remembered as the year of the recovery of tourism after the impact of the pandemic. According to our forecasts, during 2022 the number of international tourists who will have visited Spain will exceed 71.5 million and the accumulated spending will reach 87.1 billion euros”.
In the last month for which complete data is available, last November, a total of 4.3 million international tourists were received in Spain, 29.2% more than in the same month of 2021, although the arrival of travellers was still 6% lower than in November 2019. Despite this, international tourists spent 5.4 billion in Spain in November, 6% more than in the same month of 2019, undoubtedly the result of the sharp price rises experienced in the country. The United Kingdom, with a total of 828,680 tourists, (19.1% of the total and an increase of 38.4% compared to November 2021) was the main country of origin of the tourists who visited in November.
