UK is still Spain’s main source of tourism
27 December, 2023The number of tourists visiting Spain continues to grow. In October, 8.17 million international tourists visited the country, 13.9% more than in October 2022 and 7.8% more than in October 2019, considered the pre-pandemic benchmark year.
In the accumulated first ten months, 74.7 million tourists chose Spain to enjoy their holidays, a figure that is already above the accumulated figure for 2019 (+ 0.2%) and 18.2% higher than that accumulated for the same period last year, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
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Among the main outbound tourism markets to Spain, the UK continues to top the list in October, with 1,712,267 visitors, an increase of 12.2% compared to October 2022. Catalonia is the top destination chosen by tourists in October, with 20.4% of the total. It’s followed by the Balearics (18 %) and the Canaries (15.5%).
For the new Minister of Industry and Tourism (to which Turespaña belongs), Jordi Hereu, these figures show that “we are transforming the historical nature of our tourism: Spain is still the leader, the sector has fully recovered but we are diversifying and de-seasonalising flows leading to more sustainable tourism that is less dependent on the high summer season”.