Spending by international tourists grew more than 20% in the first six months of the year and reached €55.5bn

International tourist arrivals and tourist spending in Spain continued the upwards trend this summer. In the first half of the year, spending by international tourists grew 20.6% to over 55.5 billion euros and the number of visitors increased 13.3% to 42.5 million tourists.

In June, 9.3 million international tourists arrived in Spain, 12.1% more than in June last year, according to data published today by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In addition, in that month, foreign visitors brought in 12.373 billion euros; year-on-year growth of 16.6%.

In detail, the June tourism spending data, as has been the case in previous months, has seen improvements in average spending per traveller and average daily spending that, together with the average stay, are three very useful concepts for measuring the effectiveness of the tourism policies carried out by the Ministry.

In June, each visitor spent an average of 1,329 euros, 4% more than last year, and spending per day also reflected this growth, reaching 196 euros, an increase of 1.9% year-on-year. The main length of stay among tourists was 4 to 7 nights, with almost 4.7 million in total; a year-on-year increase of 10%.

Growth in 'rest of the world' tourists

As usual every month, the United Kingdom was the main source country for tourists who visited us in June, with 2.1 million and an increase of 8.8% compared to the same month in 2023. From Germany, the second country in June, 1.1 million tourists arrived (1.8% less than a year ago) and 1 million tourists came from France, the third country in the ranking (11.7% more than in June last year). In addition, the largest increases in June were in the Netherlands, up 22.7% year-on-year, and Italy and Portugal, up 19.8%.

In terms of arrivals, it is worth highlighting the significant increase in visitors from the 'rest of the world' category, which grew by more than 22% in June and by 25.8% in the first six months of the year, which shows that the Ministry's policies aimed at diversifying the markets of origin are having an effect.

In terms of tourist spending, UK nationals - those who spend the most in Spain - spent 2.493 billion euros in June, an increase of 14.3%. The second country in terms of spending was Germany, whose nationals spent 1.373 billion euros on their holidays in Spain, an increase of 2.8% compared to June 2023. In third place is France, with spending of 836 million euros and growth of 12.5%. At the top of the list of countries with the highest growth in spending in June was Italy, with a 26.8% year-on-year increase, and 442 million euros. During the first six months of 2024, the UK was the country with the highest cumulative spending (17.8% of the total), followed by Germany (12.5%) and France (7.6%).

Catalonia, leader in arrivals up to June

The Balearic Islands was the main destination for tourists in June (23.6% of the total), followed by Catalonia (21.5%) and Andalusia (14.7%). The Balearic Islands received 6.7% more tourists than in June 2023, more than 2.1 million. The number of tourists visiting Catalonia increased by 10.1% to 2 million, and Andalusia saw an increase of 18.2% to 1.3 million.

In the first six months of 2024, the communities that hosted the most tourists were Catalonia (9.1 million and an increase of 12.4% compared to the same period in 2023), the Canary Islands (7.5 million and an increase of 10.6%) and Andalusia (6.3 million and an increase of 14%). For its part, Madrid is the autonomous community with the highest percentage growth in arrivals in the first six months of the year, 20.4% more than in the same period of 2023.

The Balearic Islands, first in spending

In June, the Balearic Islands was the region with the highest spending by international tourists at 2.753 billion euros; an increase of 12.6%. After that was Catalonia with 2.531 billion euros and growth of 12.8%, and Andalusia with 1.748 billion and 22.7% more spending than in June 2023. Valencia was the region with the highest year-on-year growth in spending in June: 26.3% more.

In the first six months of 2024, the regions with the highest cumulative spending were the Canary Islands (with 19.9% of the total), Catalonia (18.6%) and Andalusia (14.9%).

Non official translation

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.