Simon Wade
FIGURES released this morning, September 6, suggest that Spain had around 40 million fewer international tourists during the first eight months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
The same data also showed an estimated shortfall in tourist income of nearly €50 BILLION.
Travel restrictions from up to 45 countries during the Coronavirus lockdown has meant very little tourism trade throughout the country, with devastating consequences.
Official figures have yet to be announced by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), so diarioinformacion made a projection comparing 2019 data.
From January to August 2019, 58.2 million tourists arrived on Spanish shores, with only 13.2 million up to the end of July 2020.
Assuming August has similar occupancy to the previous month (2.5 million), the total is still short of 16 million visitors this year.
Equally, during the first eight months of 2019, tourist expenditure was over €64 billion.
Spending from January to July 2019 was roughly €14 billion, and if August 2020 was similar to July 2020, total spend would barely reach €16 billion.
In areas that rely specifically on tourism, the situation is particularly grim.
Throughout the Balearics, tourism counts for 40% of the islands’ revenue, which explains why the GDP fell by the same figure from April to June, compared to 22% on the mainland
