Travelers from North European countries visiting Spain increased their expenditure by 15%, falling behind the British, who actually registered lower expenses. Spain received 4.1 million foreign tourists in January, 5.2% more than a year ago. The expenditure reached 4,501 million euros, which is a 5.6% increase. In both instances, it is the best January in Spain’s tourism history.
The latest data on Spanish tourism show new records in comparison to last year’s figures, in which Spain became the second most visited country in the world.
Canarias is the main destination for foreign tourists in January, with 28.8% of the total and receiving 1.18 million tourists, although this represents 0.8% less than last year. They are followed by Catalonia (registering 21.0%, with 862,872 tourists and an increase of 2%) and Andalusia (with 13.1%, 539,516 tourists, an increase of 3.4%). As far as Catalonia goes, a three-month decline streak has finally stopped.
The United Kingdom is the first country on the list, with 799,475 tourists, representing 19.5% of the total and an increase of 0.2%. They are followed by Germany and France, with about 500,000 tourists each, growing by 4.2% and 5.8% respectively.
Expenditure follows a similar pattern. Those who spend more are the British, with 754 million euros, which is actually 1.6% less than last year. Their average expenses also fall by 1.8%, to 943 euros per tourist. Behind UK are the North European countries with 548 million, an increase of 15%, and with average expenses of 1,281 euros per tourist; and the last country on the list is Germany, with 541 million on its expenditure, which is a 3.1% increase, and 1,077 euros average, representing 1% decrease.
The total expenditure of tourists who traveled without a tourist package represented a 72.3%, an increase of 5.6% in the annual rate, the same increase as those who traveled through a tourist package registered.
The average duration for foreign tourists’ trips was 8.3 days, which is a decrease of 0.2 days compared to the average of January of the last year. As far as the reason for traveling goes, tourists who visited Spain in January did it for leisure, and brought 83.6% of the total expenditure, with a 9.7% increase compared to January of 2017.