Alex Trelinski
SPAIN welcomed nearly 24 million foreign tourists this year up to the end of April- 14.5% up on the same period in 2023.
The National Institute of Statistics figures released on Monday showed that the United Kingdom continues to be main source of arrivals with over 4.4 million people recorded.
The UK was followed by Germany with 3.18 million and France just behind on 3.14 million.
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The Belgian market has seen growth of 25% and the United States at nearly 15% so far this year.
Tourism Minister, Jodri Hereu, said: “The results for the first four months of the year are a record as international tourists enjoy a range of innovative offers.”
In April, Spain received a total of 7.8 million international tourists- an increase of 8.3% more than in the same month last year.
UK arrivals stood at almost 1.5 million, recording an annual rise of 8.5%.
Nearly 1.2 million came from France (up 10.8%) and Germany 1.1 million (up 12.6%).
By region, Catalunya accounted for 21.3% of the total, followed by Andalucia (15.4%) and the Balearic Islands (15.3%).
The amount of money spent by foreign tourists up to the end of April was over €31.5 billion, according to the INE.
The regions with the highest cumulative expenditure were the Canary Islands (€8.1 billion), Catalunya(€5.4 billion) and Andalucia (€4.8 billion).
The average spend per tourist visiting Spain was €1,221.
