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DID SPAIN’S TOURISM TURN THE CORNER IN JULY?

For the first time since the start of the pandemic in 2020, according to Spain’s institute of statistics, the nation recorded a total of 4.4 million travellers in July. This was an increase of 78.8% compared to July 2020. However, in accumulated data for the first seven months of the year, total tourist arrivals were still 25% below the numbers of 2020. This translated into 9.81 million international travellers.

If looking back to 2020, from January to July, Spain recorded 13.2 million of international travellers. However, from that number, 10.6 million came between January and March.

Spain’s tourism is gaining strength, particularly as summer holidays brought large number of Northern and Western Europeans to the shores of the country. A cool summer in Northern Europe also had a beneficial effect for the destination Spain.

France was the main source country, with 874,189 tourists, accounting for 19.9% of the total and an increase of 46.6% if compared to July last year. Germany and United Kingdom came next. The country welcomed 707,331 tourists (64.5% more in the annual rate) from Germany and 555,183 tourists (46.5% more in the annual rate) from the UK. The Netherlands, Belgium and Italy each generated arrivals between 200,000 and 300,000.

Spain received some overseas travellers as well. The highest growth in arrivals in July was recorded from the United States, up 701% with 121,000 visitors. Another 250,000 arrivals came from other overseas countries.

For the first seven months of 2021, Spain’s largest incoming market source was France with nearly 2.1 million tourists and an increase of 1.8% as compared to the first seven months of 2020. Germany came in second position with almost 1.9 million travellers, representing an increase of 6.4%. The UK was the third largest source market with 0.83 million visitors, down however by 65% over the same period of 2020. Movements from the UK were hindered by the EU decision to place the country into the list of high-risk destinations, as the UK only partially allowed its citizens to go to Spain…

Balearic Islands are the winner of the tourism year 2021

While there has been a significant improvement since June in total arrivals when compared to 2020, numbers are of course still down when compared to 2019. In July 2019, Spain recorded 9.87 million alone in July… as much as the first seven months of 2021. Accumulated arrivals from January to July 2019 point to a total of…47.99 million.

Looking at the regional evolution, Balearic Islands turned into the main tourist destination in July, with a market share of 30% of all international arrivals. This was followed by Cataluña (18.5%) and Comunitat Valenciana (13.8%).

Over 1.3 million tourists travelled to the Balearic Islands, equivalent to a growth of 124.3% over July 2020. The main countries of residence of tourists visiting this Autonomous Community were Germany (385,352 arrivals) and the UK (294,323 arrivals). The number of tourists visiting Cataluña increased 86.4% reaching by 814,310 tourists. France was the largest contributor with total arrivals of 269,022. The third main destination by number of tourists was the Valencia region, with 607,214 tourists and an annual increase of 58.5%. France was also the main inbound market (with 167,547 visitors), followed by the UK (with 74,046).

In the rest of Spain, good performances were recorded for Madrid Metropolitan area, up 187.2%. The Canarias recorded an increase of 92.1% and Andalucia of 54.3% in total foriegn arrivals. In the first seven months of 2021, the Balearic Islands confirmed their leading position with nearly 2.6 million arrivals, up 152%, followed by Cataluña (with 1.79 million arrivals, down 34.9%) and Andalucía (with 1.23 million travellers, down 35.4%).

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