Spain hits record figure of 24 million tourists in summer months

Summers have been unbelievably promising for Spain. The record figure of 24 million tourists (24,681,668) in the three-month summer period was surpassed for the first time between June and August 2015, an increase of 3.2% on the same period last year. In August, strong growth was posted from France, the United Kingdom, the Asian markets and the United States (the latter up by 25%).

According to FRONTUR – the Inbound Tourism Survey, Spain surpassed the record posted between January and August 2014 with the arrival of 47,201,960 inbound tourists in the period, an increase of 1.8 million and year-on-year growth of 4.1%.

The United Kingdom was the top emitting market between January and August with almost 11 million tourists (10,885,345), an increase of 2.9% and accounting for 23.3% of the total. August saw growth of 0.5% with 2,145,949 tourists. This increase was felt by all the main autonomous regions except Catalonia.

In second place was France, which surpassed the record figure of two million inbound tourists in a single month for the first time in August. A total of 2,088,801 French tourists came to Spain in the month, 5.1% more than in August last year.

With an increase of 7.1% and 8,164,180 inbound tourists in the first eight months of the year, France continues to be the market posting the highest growth among the main emitting markets. 17.3% of all tourists who visit Spain come from France.

Germany posted a decrease of 8.1% in August, down to 1,186,66 tourists. This counterbalances the significant increase of 11.9% posted by this market in August 2014.

These figures from the German market mainly affected the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, the Canary Islands and Andalusia. However, a total of 7,083,813 German tourists visited Spain in the first eight months of the year; a decrease of 0.4% on 2014.

The Nordic markets maintained their position as the fourth emitting market for Spain with 3,323,311 tourists between January and August. This represents a slowdown of the downward trend seen in previous months to -4.1% in this period. 7.8% of all inbound tourists came from these markets. A total of 362,722 tourists visited Spain from the Nordic markets in August, an increase of 0.1% on August 2014.

With 12,119,491 tourists in the first eight months of the year, Catalonia was the top destination region for tourists visiting Spain while, with 8,726,760 tourists between January and August (up 3.1%), the Balearic Islands accounted for 23.9% of the total.

The Canary Islands maintained growth of 1% with 7,595,694 inbound tourists – the most moderate of all the main destination regions while the Region of Valencia was visited by 4,605,052 tourists in the first eight months of the year, an increase of 4.4% and 10.6% of the total.

In August, almost one million tourists (979,261) visited the Region of Valencia, an increase of 6.3% in the month. The number of tourists from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France increased while the number from the Nordic markets and Germany fell slightly.

Air travel was the most popular form of travel in the first eight months of the year, accounting for 79.3% of the total, with 37,444,460 inbound tourists arriving by air – an increase of 4%. 8,912,801 inbound tourists travelled by road, representing 18.9% of the total and an increase of 4.4%.

Both forms of travel saw increases in August; by 1.8% and 1.2%, respectively.

Hotel accommodation was chosen by 62.1% of tourists although the number of tourists travelling on a package holiday fell slightly by 0.4%, slowing the downward trend seen in recent months.