Alex Trelinski
FOREIGN holidaymakers in Spain reached a record high for the first quarter of a year with UK arrivals accounting for 18.4% of the market.
The National Statistics Institute reported 6.3 million overseas arrivals in March, beating the previous record for that month of 5.6 million set in 2019.
Over the first quarter of 2024, the cumulative total is 16.1 million visitors- up 17.7% on last year and 13.3% more than five years earlier.
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Arrivals from the United Kingdom continue to dominate with nearly three million arrivals between January and March- an increase of 15.1% on 2023.
Germany comes second with two million visitors, just edging out France with 1.9 million tourists.
The Canary Islands with its warm winter climate and anger over uncontrolled tourism, accounted for 26.4% of the quarterly total(4.2 million).
Residents there staged demonstrations calling for the introduction of a tourist tax and a moratorium on building homes for tourist use.
The next busiest regions were Catalunya (3.3 million) and Andalucia (2.3 million).
Higher tourist numbers and increased costs led to spending growing by 28% in the first quarter, totalling almost €22 billion.
If the trend continues for the rest of the year, 2024 could see expenditure reach €134 billion- €42 billion more than in 2019.
The average expenditure per tourist grew by 7.3% year-on-year to €1,363 euros per stay, while the average daily spend rose by 5.4% to €180.
Another fact revealed is that average stays rose to 7.6 days, despite notable rises in accommodation prices.
