The number of tourists visiting Andalusia in the first quarter of 2015 reached 4.27 million, an increase of 9.6 per cent over the same quarter last year, according to the results of the Andalusian Tourism Situation Survey conducted by the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia (ACE). Thanks to the popular series Game of Thrones Andalusia is more attractive for international tourists.
In a press release, the ACE explained that 63.7 per cent of these tourists came from Spain. Of the total number of tourists, 35 per cent were Andalusians, 28.7 per cent came from the rest of Spain, 24.9 per cent from the EU (excluding Spain) and 11.4 per cent from the rest of the world.
In addition, the average daily tourist spending in Andalusia in the first quarter is estimated at 63.33 euros, about 3.9 per cent higher than in the same quarter last year.
Ranking their trip on a scale of one to ten, tourists who visited Andalusia during the quarter gave their stay a rating of 7.9 out of ten.
Furthermore, the average length of stay (i.e. average number of days that a tourist stays in Andalusia) stood at 7.9 days, 2.4 per cent lower than a year earlier.
With regard to the distribution of tourists by provinces, Malaga accounted for 30 per cent, followed by Granada (22.3 per cent), Seville (14.8 per cent), Cadiz (12 per cent), Cordoba (6.7 per cent), Almeria (6.5 per cent), Huelva (5.3 per cent) and Jaén (2.4 per cent).
According to a different study, by Skyscanner, the capital of Andalusia, Seville, recorded a considerable increase of internet searches for the city thanks to the series Game of Thrones.
Skyscanner studied flight bookings to countries where the series was filmed, as well as searches for Seville by international tourists after the start of the fifth season of Game of Thrones, which has scenes filmed in Seville’s Alcázar Palace and the bullring in the nearby town of Osuna.
According to the study, after the airing of the first episodes of the fifth season, in which the Alcázar Palace of Seville lights up the Water Gardens of the fictional Kingdom of Dorne, the number of searches for this city by foreign tourists increased by 107 per cent over the same period last year.
Among the countries with the highest increase in searches for flights to Seville, Italy and Portugal lead the rankings with 181 per cent and 130 per cent respectively. They are followed by the UK (104 per cent), the Netherlands (91 per cent) and Germany (27 per cent).