Kirsty Mckenzie
THE world’s love affair with Spain appears to be on the wane after new figures showed tourists heading for the Costas fell by 87% year-on-year in October.
Figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed the number of international travellers had plummeted compared with the same period in 2019.
International travel restrictions combined with strict curfews and early bar closures in Spain were blamed for the decrease in visitors.
The year-on-year decline in October was similar to the decline in September and steeper than the 76% decline in August.
Overall, the number of tourists visiting Spain fell by 76% in the first ten months of the year, with just 17.9 million travellers arriving in Spain compared to 83.7 million the year before.
In the same time period, tourist spending was down €18.6billion down from €81.8billion.
Spain’s tourist hot spot in the first ten months of the year was Catalonia, while the number of visitors to the Canary and Balearic archipelagos plummeted 68% and 87% respectively.
But officials in the Canary Islands are hoping to claw back some of their losses this winter season should the air bridge remain in place.
They are targeting 5 million visitors this year down from 15 million in 2019.
