Spain multiplies by eight the tourists received in the first quarter of 2022


Spain multiplied by eight the number of tourists who visited it in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same period last year, thanks especially to the return of the British after two years of health crisis, according to official data.

During the first three months of the year, 9.7 million foreign tourists visited Spain, a figure eight times higher than the 1.2 million in 2021, indicates the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In the month of March alone, the country received four million visitors, compared to just 491,000 in March 2021. This number reflects the clear reactivation of the Spanish tourism sector, which, however, is still far from pre-pandemic levels. , since the figure for March represents 71% of that registered in the same month of 2019.

“Month after month, the recovery of tourism continues to be consolidated,” said the Spanish minister for the sector, Reyes Maroto, in a statement, who stated that the indicators allow us to be “optimistic” for the spring and summer 2022 campaigns, taking into account the good records of Holy Week. According to the INE, the recovery is mainly explained by the return of British tourists, the first contingent of visitors in the first quarter of the year, with 1.8 million travellers, almost 30 times more than the figure for 2021.

Spain also registered a sharp rise in tourist spending, which reached 11.9 billion euros (about 12.6 billion dollars). In March, the average spending of foreign visitors exceeded even that before the pandemic, reaching 1,257 euros ($1,325), per tourist and per stay.



Leave a Comment