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).
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”.