THE average Spanish resident will spend between €500 and €1,500 on their holidays this year, with three in 10 set to increase their budget from last year and 16% reducing it.
International tourism up eightfold on 2021: Industry recovers 71% of trade
06/05/2022
EIGHT times as many tourists travelled to Spain in March this year as in the same month in 2021, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Still below numbers seen in the last 'normal' year before the pandemic – 2019 – the four million people who visited the country in the third month of 2022, long before the warm weather and 'beach season', massively outnumbered the 491,000 who holidayed in Spain in March 2021.
Back in 2019, March saw 5.6 million foreign visitors arrive, but lockdowns and major travel restrictions in Spain and other countries meant a dramatic cut in holidaymakers from outside national borders in 2020 and 2021.
Figures for April are not yet published, so March 2022 is the most recent full month for which tourist numbers are available.
Visitors from abroad spent a very healthy sum this March – over €5 billion (€5,069,000,000) – compared with €544 million in March 2021, although as yet, still short of that of March 2019, which totalled just over €6bn (€6,035,000,000).
Data collated by Frontur surveys at Spain's arrival points, and on spending, by Egatur upon departure, British tourists are now returning in earnest – they are now, once again, the largest national group to visit the country, accounting for over 826,000 visitors in March and spending just over €1bn.
German visitors totalled 610,000 – five times the number from 2020 – and French tourists increased by 336%, numbering around 456,000.
Over the first quarter of 2022, Spain welcomed 9.67 million visitors from abroad – still lower than the 14.2 million of these three months in 2019, but a dramatic improvement on the 1.2 million of 2021 – and, between them all, they left nearly €11.9bn behind them in the country.
This is nearly 10 times the amount foreign holidaymakers in Spain spent from January to March 2021 inclusive, even though it is slightly off the €15bn tourists shelled out in these same months in 2019.
But visitors are spending more per head now than they did three years ago - €1,257 each on average, over the course of their stay, including accommodation, or 13.6% higher than in 2021 and over 15% more than the €1,068 typically spent in 2019.
Daily spending, covering cost per night of accommodation, transport in destination, food, leisure activities and general shopping, was up 20.4% year on year, coming in at an average of €157.
This translates to the average tourist being in Spain on an eight-day trip.
The Canary Islands, where the weather in March is mild and pleasant and, even, at times, suitable for the beach, benefited the most from this spectacular recovery in the tourism industry – just under 28% of arrivals were based in the region.
Catalunya was the destination of choice for 17.5%, or over 700,000, in March alone, and the southern region of Andalucía welcomed 610,000, or 15.1% of the total.
Industry, trade and tourism minister Reyes Maroto says international tourists in March now account for 71% of the number normally seen in pre-pandemic years, and the money they spent is at 84%.
Sra Maroto says she expects this trend to 'intensify' in summer, especially in light of the increased passenger flight capacity scheduled for the second quarter of the year, from April to June inclusive, and borne out by examining Social Security records which show a rise in employees in the hospitality industry for the month of April.
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EIGHT times as many tourists travelled to Spain in March this year as in the same month in 2021, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Still below numbers seen in the last 'normal' year before the pandemic – 2019 – the four million people who visited the country in the third month of 2022, long before the warm weather and 'beach season', massively outnumbered the 491,000 who holidayed in Spain in March 2021.
Back in 2019, March saw 5.6 million foreign visitors arrive, but lockdowns and major travel restrictions in Spain and other countries meant a dramatic cut in holidaymakers from outside national borders in 2020 and 2021.
Figures for April are not yet published, so March 2022 is the most recent full month for which tourist numbers are available.
Visitors from abroad spent a very healthy sum this March – over €5 billion (€5,069,000,000) – compared with €544 million in March 2021, although as yet, still short of that of March 2019, which totalled just over €6bn (€6,035,000,000).
Data collated by Frontur surveys at Spain's arrival points, and on spending, by Egatur upon departure, British tourists are now returning in earnest – they are now, once again, the largest national group to visit the country, accounting for over 826,000 visitors in March and spending just over €1bn.
German visitors totalled 610,000 – five times the number from 2020 – and French tourists increased by 336%, numbering around 456,000.
Over the first quarter of 2022, Spain welcomed 9.67 million visitors from abroad – still lower than the 14.2 million of these three months in 2019, but a dramatic improvement on the 1.2 million of 2021 – and, between them all, they left nearly €11.9bn behind them in the country.
This is nearly 10 times the amount foreign holidaymakers in Spain spent from January to March 2021 inclusive, even though it is slightly off the €15bn tourists shelled out in these same months in 2019.
But visitors are spending more per head now than they did three years ago - €1,257 each on average, over the course of their stay, including accommodation, or 13.6% higher than in 2021 and over 15% more than the €1,068 typically spent in 2019.
Daily spending, covering cost per night of accommodation, transport in destination, food, leisure activities and general shopping, was up 20.4% year on year, coming in at an average of €157.
This translates to the average tourist being in Spain on an eight-day trip.
The Canary Islands, where the weather in March is mild and pleasant and, even, at times, suitable for the beach, benefited the most from this spectacular recovery in the tourism industry – just under 28% of arrivals were based in the region.
Catalunya was the destination of choice for 17.5%, or over 700,000, in March alone, and the southern region of Andalucía welcomed 610,000, or 15.1% of the total.
Industry, trade and tourism minister Reyes Maroto says international tourists in March now account for 71% of the number normally seen in pre-pandemic years, and the money they spent is at 84%.
Sra Maroto says she expects this trend to 'intensify' in summer, especially in light of the increased passenger flight capacity scheduled for the second quarter of the year, from April to June inclusive, and borne out by examining Social Security records which show a rise in employees in the hospitality industry for the month of April.
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HOLIDAYMAKERS from abroad visiting Spain this year are spending more money than ever, and visitor numbers have soared since last year, according to recent figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).