Alex Trelinski
ALICANTE-ELCHE and Valencia airports reported their busiest-ever January with new records set for passenger numbers.
Alicante-Elche airport welcomed 795,148 passengers- up by 68.1% on 2021 and crucially a 1.3% increase on the record-breaking 2019 total.
The biggest number of foreign arrivals were from the United Kingdom on 245,279, with the Netherlands a distant second on 69,503.
Valencia’s total of 585,771 was an even larger 7.9% improvement on 2019 and a 73.4% increase on a year earlier.
Italian arrivals lead the list with 94,177, followed by the United Kingdom on 48,348, and France on 43,947.
Spain had 71.6 million international tourists last year- 14.3% less than in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
Tourism bosses have confidently predicted a busy 2023 with a survey of 2,000 businesses published last month by Exceltur predicting that revenue will be up 4.7% on 2019 figures.
Tourist spending last year exceeded pre-pandemic levels but businesses had to factor in higher costs.
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