Chinese tourists returning to Spain

Friday, July 28, 2023

As the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic eases off, Chinese tourists are flocking to Spain.

This week in Barcelona, a news agency joined a group of 14 visitors from Guangzhou, China, who were shown around the iconic landmarks of Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia church.

Based in Barcelona and specializing in showing groups of tourists from China around the city, Chen Tingting, a tourist guide, confirmed that Chinese visitors are now coming in increasing numbers.

According to Chen, Chinese tourists are returning on such a large scale that the consulates of Spain, France and Germany in China could not cope with the numbers of visa applications.

The group of Chinese tourists that the news agency accompanied was on a 10-day tour of Spain and Portugal, which included visits to Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Granada, Huelva, Toledo, and Segovia.

Attracting Chinese tourists is a priority of the Spanish tourism agency Turespana, which has organized a string of activities like the Spain-China tourism cooperation forum, and a promotional trip to China, in an effort to let more Chinese get to know about Spain.

Individual cities and areas in Spain are also promoting themselves as ideal tourist destinations in China, such as Barcelona, which last year attracted some 9.7 million visitors.

Eduard Torres, president of the Executive Committee of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, told the news agency that out of all the visitors they get, they would very much like the proportion of Chinese visitors to go up, because they are visitors especially interested in the culture, and visitors that put culture as a priority is the type of visitors they want to see.

Torres added that his organization is also facilitating and encouraging our different cultural institutions to go to China and promote themselves.

In 2019, the year before the pandemic, some 700,000 Chinese tourists visited Spain, staying an average of eight days and spending an average of 2,400 euros per person, according to data from Spanish authorities.

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