Tourism Spending In Spain Beats Records Once Again

Tourism spending in SpainTourists coming from Asia are interested in Spanish culture, historical heritage and the natural environment

Tourism spending in Spain in the month of July totalled 11.902 billion euros, up 16.3% from 2016 and, yet again, beating records. Accumulated spending for the year totals 49.119 billion.

The results of the report on tourism spending published by the National Statistics Institute reveals that not only the number of tourists has increased, with over 83 million predicted for this year, but spending has gone up as well.

According to figures from the World Tourism Organisation, only the US is ahead of Spain in terms of countries with the highest revenues from tourism.

In the first seven months of this year, the main countries of origin of tourists to Spain, in terms of their level of spending, were the UK (20.2% of the total), Germany (14.0%) and the Nordic countries (8.5%).

The main destinations, with the biggest weighting in terms of tourism spending over the same period, were Catalonia (22.4% of the total), the Canary Islands (19.1%) and the Balearic Islands (16.5%).

Average spending per tourist in the period increased in the main markets, with Germany heading the list (up 3.49% to 1.004 euros), followed by the 3.08% rise in the UK to 908 euros. The UK comes in third in terms of spending per tourist, although it leads the pack in terms of total spending, at 9.898 billion euros. The tourist who spends the most on average comes from the Baltic Countries, with a total of 1.198 euros.

Average spending per tourist stood at 1.048 euros in the seven months to July, up 3.45% from a year earlier, while the average daily spend rose 5.01% to 139 euros year-on-year in July.

The average length of international tourists’ trips was 7,5 days in July, down 1.49% from a year ago.

On the other hand, although tourism spending has increased, the number of overnight stays declined 1.5% in the seven months to July, with the numbers from Italy and the UK falling the most (-2.64% and -2.19% respectively).

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The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.