MADRID: The bumper year for the Spanish tourism sector continued last month, with the latest figures published by the government showing that more people visited Spain from abroad than ever before during any month of July.
The total of 8.8 million tourists represented a healthy increase of 6.3% in comparison to July 2014, and after seven months of the year the overall figure now stands at 37.9 million (4.7% up on last year). Both figures are the highest yet recorded, and it now seems almost certain that in terms of the number of visitors this will be the best year ever for the Spanish tourist sector.
As is customary the highest total in terms of visitor nationality is that of the UK, which in seven months has provided 8.7 million visitors to Spain (3.5% more than last year). Second on the list is France (7.8% higher at 6 million), followed by Germany (1.3% up at 5.8 million), and between them these three markets account for 54.5% of the year-to-date total.
So far this year 2.9 million people have come to Spain from Scandinavia (4.6% fewer than in the same period last year), while Italy and the Netherlands have provided 2 million and 1.6 million visitors respectively on the back of increases of 7.3% and 4.1%.
In terms of improved performance, though, the leaders are the USA, which has provided almost 900,000 visitors, a healthy 21.3% more than last year, and the Far East: tourism from South Korea, China and Japan has grown by 40.9% in the first seven months of 2015.
As for the most popular destinations in Spain for visitors from abroad, the list is topped as usual by Catalunya (5.5% higher at 9.7 million), the Canaries (0.9% higher at 6.5 million), the Balearics (up by 3.9% at 6.5 million), Andalucía (7.1% higher at 5.1 million), the Comunidad Valencia (4% higher at 3.96 million) and Madrid (up by 10.7% at 2.9 million).
Between them, the other eleven regions of Spain account for only 8.9% of all foreign visitors to Spain (3.39 million in the first seven months of the year).
