MADRID: Figures published this week by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Energy confirm that the amount of Spending by British visitors to Spain up 15% in first quarter of 2015money being spent by foreign visitors to Spain continued to rise during March, reaching a total of 4,197 million euros(4.1 billion). This is 5.4% higher than in the same month last year, with much of the increase being due to a 21.5% rise in the amount spent by tourists and other visitors from the UK.
British visitors spent 776 million euros in Spain last month and accounted for 18.5% of the total, a positive development which may have a lot to do with the favourable pound-euro exchange rate. The next biggest spenders were the Germans (down 8% to 700 million euros) and visitors from Scandinavia (down 13.7% to 498 million euros).
Practically all of the major tourist regions of Spain recorded higher foreign tourist spending figures this March, although the only exception was the Canaries, which tops the list. Here the total reached 1,175 million euros, 9.8% less than in the same month last year, while elsewhere spending rose by 18.6% to 946 million euros in Catalunya, by 6% to 633 million euros in Andalucía, by 11.4% to 474 million euros in Madrid, by 6.8% to 372 million euros in Valencia and by 26.5% to 269 million euros in the Balearics.
