In February, Spain recovered 71% of the international tourists who arrived in the pre-pandemic stage (February 2020), reaching nearly 3.2 million travellers and the level of spending stood at 78%, exceeding 3,7 billion euro.
The United Kingdom is the main market with nearly 580,000 tourists, which represents 18.3% of the total, while tourists from France spent more on their trip than two years ago, according to data from the Frontur and Egatur surveys released today by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
“In February, the recovery trend in international tourism was consolidated with a growth of more than 670,000 travellers compared to the previous month, which shows the perception of Spain as a safe destination. A trend that we hope will intensify significantly in the face of the first milestone of the 2022 holiday calendar, Easter Week. The forecast is that in the month of April there will be recovery of around 80% of the international tourists from the pre-pandemic”, said the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto.
International tourists arriving in February grew by 1,007.8% compared to last year, reaching the figure of 3,156,809. The United Kingdom, France and Germany, in that order, were the main issuing markets, although the highest year-on-year growth was registered in the Nordic Countries (2,005.1%), Ireland (1,998.9%) and the Netherlands (1,482%).
In the first two months of 2022, the number of tourists visiting Spain increased by 680.6% and exceeded 5.6 million. In the same period of 2021, 722,947 arrived.
Main destinations
The Canary Islands, with 968,004 visitors, was the main destination for international tourists (3 out of 10), mostly British and German; followed by Catalonia (with a share of 19.6% and 619,390 travellers) and Andalusia (13.5% and 425,307 visitors). Tourists mainly travelled to Catalonia from France and other European countries, while Andalusia received mainly British and French tourists.
The duration of the majority stay among tourists in February was from four to seven nights, with a total expenditure (including transport to Spain) of 3,7 billion euro, which represents 79.7% of the pre-pandemic stage. There is already a market, France, with a level of spending higher than February 2020 (385 million euro compared to 349). The average expenditure per tourist, with 1,190 euro, is also above the pre-pandemic stage, when it was 1,066 euro.
The main autonomous communities by tourist spending are, in order, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Valencian Community.
