Alex Trelinski
SPAIN has clocked up its busiest-ever start to a year for foreign tourists, passing the 17 million total for the first time.
Figures covering the first three months of 2025 were released by the National Statistics Institute(INE) on Monday.
They showed an annual first-quarter rise of 5.68% over the 2024 total.
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The first three months suggest that Spain will have welcomed 100 million tourists by the end of this year.
January and February surpassed five million travellers for the first time, while March clocked up a record 6.6 million arrivals- despite Easter not falling in that month,
The traditional foreign markets of the UK, France and Germany dominated over the first quarter with 42% of the total.
The United Kingdom led the way with over 3.1 million tourists, a rise of 4.6% on last year.
France accounted for 2.12 million arrivals with Germany not far behind on 2.05 million.
Total expenditure by foreign tourists grew by 7.2% year-on-year to stand at €23.5 billion- another record.
The first two months saw spending exceed €7 billion each, while it climbed to €9 billion in March.
Tourism Minister, Jordi Hereu, said: “The figures are a clear change in the kind of tourism we want to consolidate in Spain with less focus on mass tourism.”
“We we are going to continue working to provide the sector with great added value,” he continued.
He said that Spain wants to continue to be a benchmarks for ‘deseasonalising’ tourism and attracting visitors to less traditional destinations to curb issues like overcrowding.
