In Spain tourism revives but much below pre-COVID levels

Monday, February 7, 2022

In 2021, the number of tourists visiting Spain and the amount of money they’ve spent during their stay were much higher than 2020 but significantly low compared to levels that was experienced before pandemic, according to two studies published here.

The “Statistics on Tourist Movement on the Borders and Tourist Expenditure Survey” (also known as FRONTUR-EGATUR) done by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE) shows that in December 2021, around 2.9 million international tourists came to the country – this was a major development compared to the same month in 2020, when visits by only 648,989 foreigners were logged, reports Xinhua news agency.

A total of 31.1 million foreign visitors in 2021 came to Spain, 64.4 per cent more that in 2020. However, 62.7 per cent less than the 83.7 million tourists who in 2019 had spent their holidays in the country.

Spain and many other countries during the best part of the first half of last year had Covid-19-related travel restrictions in place. For Spain’s tourism industry, France and Germany were the two biggest source markets, with 5,819,630 French and 5,196,230 Germans coming to the country along with 4,295,052 UK tourists.

In December 2021, as per EGATUR survey of tourist expenditure shows that in December 2020, tourist spending increased to 3,542 million euros ($4,000 million) from 687 million euros, raising the annual total to 34,816 million euros.

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