Latest: Coronavirus in Spain figures (28 Sept)
Due to Coronavirus and international travel restrictions, Spain received 75% fewer international tourists in July, compared to the same month in 2019 – and 79.5% less tourism revenue. This is according to figures from the Tourist Border Movement Statistics (Frontur) and the Tourist Spending Survey (Egatur), published on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
2.5 million international tourists visited Spain in July 2020, 75% fewer than in the same month last year, spending around 2.45 billion euros.
During July, average spending per tourist stood at 994 euros, down by 17.8% on last year, with the average length of stay being 8.1 days, which was an increase of 0.6 days on July 2019.
Spain normally receives around 83m visitors during a full year, its tourism sector accounts for 12.3% of the country’s GDP – and it also generates more than 2.6m jobs in the country.
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Fernando Valdés, Spain’s State Secretary for Tourism, said that the figures ‘show how Covid-19 is negatively affecting the tourism sector due to the international mobility restrictions and the lack of confidence by inbound tourists, an impact that is being felt all around the world’.
Valdés drew attention to the fact that visitors had stayed longer than in 2019, however.
‘This shows that among those who choose to travel to our country, Covid-19 has not altered their plans in terms of the length of their stay, which is indicative of the perception of Spain as a safe destination,’ he said.
From Jan-July 2020, the number of tourists that visited Spain exceeded 13.2 million, with total spending amounting to 14.29 billion euros, 72.6% down on the same period of 2019.
The Balearic Islands was the main destination chosen by international tourists, both in terms of the number of arrivals (23.9% of the total) and of the amount of spending by tourists (26%).
This region was followed by Catalonia, with 17.7% of the arrivals and 17.3% of the spending, and the Valencia region (15.5% of arrivals and of spending).
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With regards the nationality of origin of the tourists, the number of arrivals in July was led by the French, with 597,244 tourists, followed by the Germans (432,302) and the British (377,886).
With the year to date, however, the United Kingdom remains the main origin of tourists, with more than 2.4 million travellers, a drop of 76.9% on the same period of 2019.
France (with more than 2 million and a drop of 67.2%) and Germany (with almost 1.8 million and a drop of 72.9%) hold second and third spots respectively.
In terms of spending for the same period of Jan-July, visitors from the United Kingdom lead the way (16.3% of the accumulated total), Germany (13.5%) and then the Nordic countries (8.9%).
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