The Spanish Institute for Statistics have recently released the figures for tourists visits in January 2018.
The first month of 2018 saw in excess of 4.1 million international visitors to Spain.
This figure represents an increase of 5.2% over January 2017. Considering that 2017 was a record year for tourism in Spain, this is quite an incredible increase.
The largest number of visitors, nearly 800,000, came from the UK. This is almost 20% of total tourists for January.
The primary other nationalities were Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries.
There was also an increase number of people arriving from Belgium (near 20% compared with January 2017) and the USA (21% increase).
The past 2 years have seen dramatic increases in visitors to Spain which has enabled the country to overtake the USA to become the second most popular destination in the world after France.
Spain has seen increases year on year for the past 5 years.
- 2016 75.3 m visitors
- 2017 82 m visitors
The most popular regions for tourists in January were:
- Canary Islands 28.8% of visitors
- Cataluña 21%
- Andalucia 13.1%
- Madrid 12.9%
- Comunidad Valenciana 10.9%
Gran Canaria
The Canary Islands are always a popular holiday choice through the winter months due to the climate.
The breakdown of nationalities by destination shows how some areas are favoured by visitors from certain countries:
- Andalucía – UK 23.3%, Germany 12.4%
- Balearic Islands – Germany 48.1%, UK 16.8%
- Canary Islands – UK 30.3%, Scandinavian countries 23.6%
- Cataluña – France 20%, Rest of world 14.1%
- Comunidad Valenciana: UK 30.4%, France 13.3%
The method of travel for visitors during January 2018 shows the vast majority arrived in Spain by plane:
- Flying 3.472 m
- Driving 538,000
- Train 11,547
- By sea 87,664
The internet has enabled travellers access to a wide choice of accommodation. Package holidays are no longer the preferred method of booking a holiday.
Over 3 million of January´s tourist travelled outside of a package holiday.
The accommodation figures can be broken down as follows:
- Hotels 2.33 m
- Visit friends/family 831, 000
- Rental property 367,000
- Stay in own property 326,000
The impressive start to 2018 gives an indication that Spain is in for another record year for tourism.
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