Alex Trelinski
SPAIN welcomed 4.3 million foreign tourists in February, 35.9% more than in the same month last year.
Data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) released on Monday shows that international visitors spent 41.1% more than a year earlier reaching €5.3 billion.
In the first two months of 2023, a total of 8.5 million people arrived in Spain, 49.1% more than in 2022 but 1.3% below the figure registered in the first two months of 2019, before the pandemic
In that same time frame, the total expenditure of international tourists who visited Spain increased by 54.7% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching €10.5 billion.
Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the expenditure figure for February was 12.9% higher.
Newly-appointed Tourism Minister, Hector Gomez, said: “This is an exceptional start of the year for tourism and with us now in Semana Santa, we expect occupation and spending records to be broken over Easter.”
The United Kingdom continues to be the country that sends the most people to Spain with 18.2% of the total.
In February, a total of 784,496 Brits arrived in Spain, representing an increase of 35.6% compared to a year earlier.
The INE figures show the Canary Islands once again was the favourite destination for international tourists, accounting for 28.5% of total visitors, followed by Catalunya (21.4%) and Andalucia (14.2%).
In the rest of the regions, foreign tourists increased by 60.3% in the Community of Madrid, 22.8% in the Valencian Community and 21.5% in the Balearic Islands.
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