October’s results of tourism in Spain show that in ten months 11.5 million tourists were lost compared to 2019, which represent 15.4% of the tourists who visited the country that year.
Spanish tourism dropped by 5.4% in the number of tourists received in October, which is equivalent to losing 410,000 tourists during the month, but the accumulated results until the end of October are disastrous, the economy lost 11.5 million tourists which is equivalent to the 15.4% drop.
Maroto Sells Something Else
Tourism Minister Maroto and her team say: "Foreign tourist arrivals in October are bordering on the pre-pandemic level".
In October 2019, 7.6 million tourists arrived and this year, after not a single month has come close to the 2019 figures, 5.4 % was lost.
Experts familiar with these numbers would never have used the term "bordering". If the difference had been 1%, we could accept the graze, but when it is 5%, not only has it not grazed the post, but the ball has gone straight into the stands.
Reyes Maroto's statements have no waste: the minister valued the "good October data" that maintain the "recovery trend started a year and a half ago, which is allowing to reach pre-pandemic levels".
"Tourism in Spain is showing great strength despite the current context of uncertainty, which is reflected very favorably in the economy and employment."
If approaching the pre-pandemic levels means losing 11.5 million tourists, when in addition, 3 million of them are British, it seems to experts that the minister floats somewhere above reality, it is surely skimming the ground.
Misleading and False
The fact that tourism is showing great strength, which is reflected in the economy and in employment, means that the tourism authorities mislead society.
Tourism in Spain has been given a huge slap in the face, that the economy in the third quarter has fallen by 1.9% at current prices, that is, with inflation included, with respect to the second quarter of 2022, is the Spanish economy is not doing well and if we talk about unemployment, according to FEDEA in October it was 14.3%, however, the authorities introduce more favorable data and insist it is going well.
As of October there is only one source country that was growing compared to 2019 and that is the Netherlands, which registered 6.3% growth, the rest is a very worrying situation. The Nordic countries, which were the fourth most important region, has taken a header to the ground. Spain has lost almost 1 out of 4 tourists, with the United Kingdom as the main source market, about 3 million tourists were lost. The Germans and French are losing 1.3 and 1.2 million each.