Spain is being visited by more people from abroad this year than ever before, despite the increasing protests against mass tourism in the country.
The national statistics authority INE said in Madrid on Monday that by July 31, the number of visitors had risen by around 12% compared with the same period last year, to a record of almost 53.4 million.
Spending by tourists and business travellers increased by almost 19% to around €71.1 billion. In July alone, Spain was visited by 10.9 million people from abroad, 7.3% more than in July 2023, according to INE.
They spent more than €15.5 billion in the country, almost 12% or €1.7 billion higher than the previous year, which was a record high for July.
Once again, visitors from Britain were mainly responsible for the records, with a total of 10.5 million visitors between January 1 and July 31, up 8.6% from the same period last year.
This was followed by the French, with more than seven million (up 10.6%), and Germans with 6.8 million (up 10.1%).
The most visited region was Catalonia with almost 11.5 million, ahead of the Balearic Islands (just over 8.7 million), the Canary Islands (just under 8.7 million) and Valencia (just under 6.8 million).
Visitor numbers in Spain surged steadily for years before the coronavirus pandemic caused a slowdown. However, since 2022, records have been consistently breaking once again.
In recent months, there have been demonstrations in holidaymaker strongholds such as Mallorca, Barcelona, Málaga and the Canary Islands.
Above all, the rapidly growing housing shortage, which is attributed to the increase in holiday flats, is annoying the locals – but traffic jams, noise and dirt are also big concerns.
Tourism accounts for almost 14% of Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) but in some regions the figure is significantly higher. On Mallorca and the rest of the Balearic Islands, for example, it stands at around 35%.
