Spending by foreign tourists is around 10 billion euros, 23% less than last year
Spain received around 4.4 million foreign tourists in July, an increase of 78% on 2020 but far fewer than in 2019. Between January and July this year, 9.8 million holidaymakers came to Spain from overseas, which is just a fraction of the 48.1 million who visited in the same period in 2019.
The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, claimed that the numbers ‘reflect the gradual recovery of international tourism and show that Spain has managed to be perceived as a safe destination by millions of travellers’, but so far the country has only made a fifth of the income from international tourism than it did two years ago.
As a matter of fact, this year’s foreign tourism statistics for the first seven months of the year are even worse than last year when the Covid pandemic and lockdown were in full flow. While 13.2 million tourists visited Spain between January and July 2020, the figures are 25.8% lower this year at just 9.8 million. These travellers spent a total of 10.996 billion euros between January and July, which is 23.2% less than the same period in 2020, when spending by foreign tourists was up to 14.322 billion euros.
This figure becomes even more stark when compared to the same period in 2019, before the COVID crisis when spending by foreigners in Spain was up to 52.193 billion, 79% more than now.
While the tourist sector in Spain may be on the mend, there is still a long way to go before it reaches pre-pandemic levels again.
Image: Archive
Source: Murcia Today
