Spain is heading for record year for tourism with an unparalleled 29.2 million foreign tourists visiting the country in the first half of the year.
The 2015 figures represent a 4.2% increase on the same period last year and equate to some 1.2 million more tourists than in the first six months of 2014.
These figures, which illustrate the best first-six-months figures on record, coupled with the "highly positive" outlook for the summer prompted Spain's Minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, to say that there would "very probably" be more record-breaking figures by the end of the year.
The minister pointed out that holiday accommodation occupation rates for the summer months were at 90% in many places along the coast, at 70% in rural areas and 80% in the state-run network of Paradores.
In June alone, almost 6.7 million foreign tourists visited Spain, 1.4% more than in 2014 and surpassing all previous records for the month of June.
British tourists were the most numerous between January and June, with 6.7 million people coming from the UK to Spain, 2.6% more than during the same period last year, followed by 4.7 million Germans (up 1.6%) and 4.6 million French (up 7.5%).
The greatest increase in tourists from any one country were shown by the United States (up 15.7%) with 661,612 visitors to Spain; Switzerland (up 9.7%) with 755,950 visitors; Belgium (up 7.8%) with 974,398 visitors; Ireland (up 7.4%) with 624,761 visitors, and Italy (up 7.3%) with 1.6 million visitors.
Catalonia was the most popular destination in Spain with 7.4 milliones tourists from January until June, 4.4% more than last year, whereas Madrid and the surrounding area saw the greatest increase, jumping 8.2% to 2.5 million visitors.
Andalusia was the region that saw the greatest increase in tourism for the first six months of the year, with figures leaping 7.6% and surpassing the four million mark. The Canary Islands saw the biggest increase in the number of tourists for the first half of the year, with 5.6 million visitors, a 0.4% increase on 2014.
The Valencian Community welcomed 2.7 million foreign visitors in the months up to June, 2.4% more than the same period last year.
Although the majority of tourists stayed in hotels (65.1% of the total) non-hotel accommodation proved more popular than ever, with 10.2 million tourists choosing this type of accommodation, an 8.7% increase on last year. More than half of these chose to stay with friends or realtives.
With regard to travel arrangements, the number of tourists coming to Spain without a package tour made up 70.7% of the total, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%, compared with a 3.4% decrease in those choosing package tour options.
