Despite a gloomy economic atmosphere throughout Europe, Spain is experiencing continued growth, including a bumper August this year.
Whereas countries such as France and Germany have been somewhat suffering from the effects of the financial crisis ever since 2008, Spain seems to be a long way down the road to recovery.
Traditionally the second most visited country in Europe, Spain has always had plenty to offer. The evidence is there to see today, as both the large urban areas of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia along with the beach resorts and islands continue to draw in numbers of tourists on a huge scale.
7.64 million tourists visited Spain in August this year, which was a 9.4% improvement on the same month in 2010. This constitutes towards the 4th consecutive year of growth after the recovery period began once the dust settled on troubling financial times.
Catalonia was a particular subject of growth, with 1.9 million people having visited in August. The Valencia region was especially popular with 737,000 foreign tourists. The popularity of Madrid was greatly aided by the hosting of World Youth Day, which drew in large crowds.
The top market was the UK, as it has been for many years, although the German and American markets are on the rise. The former was, indeed, 12.3% up in August in comparison to last year. The UK market has traditionally been a favorite in Spanish tourism and the signs are that the negative effects of financial trouble in the UK are slowly being eradicated.