Laurence Dollimore
FOREIGN tourists contributed a staggering €3 billion to the Andalucian economy in the first quarter of 2017.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), the astonishing figure is a 15.1% increase on last year.
It places Andalucia third in terms of money made from international visitors, behind Catalonia and the Canary Islands, who are first and second respectively.
And despite Brexit, the spending by Brits increased by 7.7% in April compared to last year.
Andalucia came second in terms of the length of stay, with tourists spending an average of 8.5 days in the region.
At national level, the data up to April shows a year-on-year increase in foreign tourism of almost 20%, with a gross amount exceeding €20 billion.
Last year saw the country rake in a record-breaking €77 billion from international tourism.
Spain could lose quite a few holiday makers. Strange that the EU is against EU citizens ID cards
whereas all or most of EU citizens need to carry ID cards. Surely they must understand this also is a means of knowing who are entitled to all the freebees that the UK has to offer.
I seem to recall that the UK planned some time back to introduce ID cards but if fell through owing to the incredibly high cost (probably due to the complexity of the details they planned on having in them) and the scheme was supposed to be voluntary. Needless to say that went off like a damp firework but probably cost the “investigators” (i.e. the taxpayer) a fortune. Certainly beneficial to virtually everyone & they should be mandatory & thereby make life easier for everyone including the police.
David I’m sure if Spain can afford ID cards (most probably on borrowed money from the EU) the UK can afford some savings from the Brexit move.