The number of international tourists arriving in Spain has returned to pre-pandemic levels, with an increase of 78.3 percent this year and a total of 4.4 million arrivals in July.
According to the Spanish Statistical Institute (INE), an increase was observed in the arrival of 874,189 tourists from France, which is 19.9% of all arrivals. In addition, 707,331 tourists came from Germany (64.5 percent more than last year) and 555,183 tourists from the UK, which is 46.5 percent more than in 2020.
“The summer was very good. We have hotels that are even better than in August 2019, ”Antonio Catalonia, president of AC Hotels by Marriott, told El Pais.
In addition, INE data show that Spanish residents made 14.9 million hotel bookings in July 2020 compared to 14.8 million in 2019. Domestic tourism also witnessed a slight increase in July from 5.8 million domestic tourists compared to 5.7 million in 2019.
However, this year, international tourism has spent less money in Spain, noting a 60% decrease of 11.5 million euros in July compared to 28.3 million euros for the same period in 2019.
However, although the number of tourists has increased since the beginning of the year, they have decreased by 25.8% compared to last year. Moreover, the graph shows that the number of international tourist arrivals has almost doubled compared to 2020, from 2.4 million to 4.3 million in 2021, but decreased by 5.5 million compared to 2019.
In February 2021, the country had the lowest number of international tourists – only 284,311 people, while in July, 4.4 million international tourists were registered.
The Balearic Islands were the best place for international tourists to 1,320,144 visitors, representing 30 per cent of the total number of visitors, followed by the region of Catalonia with 18.5 per cent of all visitors (814,310 people) and Valencia with 607,214 visitors, which is 13, 8 percent of all arrivals.
Arrivals from Germany accounted for the majority of tourists registered in the Balearic and Canary Islands, while in Andalusia the largest number of visits was 87,166 tourists from Northern Europe. On the other hand, Madrid was a favorite place for Americans: in July, the city was visited by 46,459 people.
Moreover, although this number is promising, at the moment the period 2020-2021 was the worst season for tourism in Spain, recording the lowest number of arrivals in the last two decades.
Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that as of September 3, ten coronavirus-related deaths and 3,517 positive cases were reported in Spain. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Spain, 84,472 deaths and 48,618,883 cases of infection with the virus have been registered.
However, Spain carries out active vaccination, with 88.1% of the population vaccinated with the first vaccination of the virus, and 78.1% of the total population vaccinated completely.