Madrid (EFE).- Spain received a total of 71.6 million tourists in 2022, 14.3% less than in 2019, before the pandemic, although the expense associated with these arrivals totaled 87,061 million, and only 5.3% below then.
The recovery of foreign tourism has been growing throughout the year. After a very bad start due to the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the figures began to rise from the month of May and since then the progression has been continuous.
In 2022, the full recovery of the two archipelagos in volume of income, the increase in average spending per person, the massive arrival of Britons -the traditional first issuer of tourists to Spain, which ceded position to France during the pandemic- , and a more discreet advance of German tourism.
The better evolution of spending is due to the rise in the average daily disbursement, which increased by 17.8% over 2021, up to 162 euros and is 8 euros above the 2019 figure.
The average expense per tourist reached 1,217 euros, with an increase of 8.7% compared to 2021 and 10.4% over 2019 and the average duration of the trips was 7.5 days, 0.7 less than a year ago. year compared to the average for 2021.
The British are growing at the fastest rate
According to the surveys of tourist entries (Frontur) and associated spending (Egatur) published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the United Kingdom was the first issuer of tourists, with 15.1 million, followed by France (10 .1 million) and Germany (9.76 million).
The number of Britons is still far from the 18 million registered in 2019 but grew by 251% over 2021, the highest ratio among large issuers. They spent 17,145 million euros in Spain, 259% more than a year earlier.
The German, usually the second issuer, grew 87.4% over the previous year and has moved to third place, in favor of France, which increased 73.3%. In 2019, practically the same number of tourists had arrived from Germany and France, around 11.15 million.
However, in terms of spending, the second position after the British is occupied by Germany, with 11,513 million, while the French left here 8,149 million euros.
German average daily spending falls
This higher German outlay was common before the pandemic, although a drop in the average daily spending of the Germans is observed from 154 euros in 2019 to 145 at the end of 2022 and a rise in French, from 98 euros then to 116 now.
The increase over 2021 was also very significant among tourists from the United States (250%, up to 2.79 million), which are approaching the 3.32 million in 2019.
Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands captured 56% of foreign tourism. The Catalan hosted 20.7% of all travelers (14.8 million, more than in 2019), coming mainly from France (23% of the total).
It is followed by the Balearic Islands, with 18.5% of the total and 13.2 million arrivals, mainly Germans (32.6%) and British (25.5%).
The third recipient was the Canary Islands, with 17.2% of the entries (12.3 million), mainly British (38%) and Germans (17.1%).
Next are Andalusia (10 million), the Valencian Community (8.6 million) and Madrid (6 million and the highest growth among the large recipients of international tourists, 177%). All large recipients are below pre-pandemic volumes.
