May 2023 Witnessed Spain Achieving a New Record with 8.2 Million Tourist Arrivals

Data released by the National Institute of Statistics revealed that Spain saw a surge in tourism in May with 8,2 million international visitors.

This represents an 18% increase compared with the same period of 2022, and a 4% increase compared with May 2019.

This is a record for both the number of visitors and their spending. The total amount spent was EUR9.73million. SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that this represents a 21% increase over the previous year, and a 19% increase compared with the levels before the pandemic.

In the first five month of this year, Spain received a total of 29,2 million visitors, which is a 28 percent increase compared to last year's same period. The total expenditure during this period was EUR35.4million, a 32 percent increase over the previous year, and a 16 percent increase in comparison to 2019.

According to INE statistics, in May, the average tourist expenditure in Spain was EUR1,183 – a three percent increase compared with the previous year. The average daily expenditure rose by 11,6% to EUR185. This indicates that tourists are spending more per day.

Data also shows that over 4.2 millions travellers stayed for between four and seven nights in Spain. This is a 22.8 percent increase in length of stay in a year, which highlights the preference of travellers to take longer trips in May.

UK is the main source country for tourists

In May 2023, over 1.8 millions tourists visited Spain from the United Kingdom.

INE data shows that this large number of tourists represents 22,2% of total tourist arrivals. This is a 10,4% increase compared to the month of May 2022.

France and Germany, along with the UK, are also major contributors to Spain's tourism industry.

France had 1.2 million tourists, which represents a 24.1 percent annual growth. Germany was next with almost 1.1 million visitors, which represents an increase of 8.7 percent compared to last year.

There is also a notable increase in the number of tourists visiting from other countries.

Spain's visitors from the United States increased by 38.8 percent. Portugal's growth rate was 26.2%, while Belgium also contributed with a 19.6% increase in tourist arrivals.

Balearic Islands attracted the highest number of tourists in May 2023

Balearic Islands accounted for 21,9% of all arrivals in May this year.

Catalonia was second with 21.8 percent, followed by Andalusia with 14.7 percent.

The Balearics Islands welcomed 1.8 million tourists in May 2022, a 10.2 percent increase. Germany and the UK were the two leading countries among visitors to the Balearic Islands.

Catalonia has seen a dramatic increase in tourists, with nearly 1.8 million arriving, a 21.7% rise. Of the tourists who visited Catalonia in 2011, 11% were from the United States and 21.9 % came from France.

Andalusia was the third most popular community in terms of tourists. It received over 1.2 million visitors, which is a 16.5% increase from last year. Andalusia's main source of tourists was the UK, which accounted for 25,5% of the total. France came in second with 11,4%.
The number of tourists in other regions has also increased. In the Comunidad de Madrid the increase was 23.3 percent, while the Canary Islands saw a 9.7 percent increase.

Catalonia has received almost 6.1 million tourists in the first five month of 2023. This is 37.5% more than the same period of 2022.

Canary Islands were next with 5.9 million visitors, a 21.0% increase. Andalusia welcomed almost 4.4 million visitors, a significant increase of 31.7%.

 

Source: schengenvisainfo.com