Brits help break tourism record in Spain after MILLIONS visited the country in July alone this year – these are the top destinations for 2024 – Olive Press News Spain

SPAIN’S tourism bubble shows no signs of bursting as the country welcomed 10.9 million international visitors in July this year – a 7.3% rise year-on-year.

And the avalanche of foreigners splashed out on average €195 a day, totalling €15.5 billion over the course of the month – another huge 11.9% increase on last year.

The Brits once again remain Spain’s most loyal customer, ranking first both in number of tourists and total expenditure. 

However they now also outmuscle their European counterparts on the what they fork out per day. 

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Over two million Brits arrived last month – a full 20% more than second place France. Collectively they spent €2.8 billion (18.3% of the total), at an average of €196 a day.

The French and the Germans jostle for silver, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). 

Despite there being five Frenchman (1.6 million) for every four Germans (1.3 million) visiting Spain in July, the German still outspent their Gallic neighbours by €1.7 billion to €1.5 billion.

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Both were relatively miserly while on Spanish shores, with the Germans spending an average of €170 a day and the French just €130 – perhaps a reflection that some visitors were just day trippers driving over the border.

But the real big spenders in Spain come from beyond Europe’s shores. 

‘Rest of the world’ (presumably with the Americans and the Emiratis leading the way) splashed out an average of €227 a day.

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Spending overall continues to soar, up by 11.9% on average, and by a whopping 20.1% in the Valencian Community 

The most popular destination for foreign tourists was the Balearic Islands, which welcomed 2.5 million in July, followed by Catalunya with 2.4 million guests. 

The Valencian Community just pips Andalucia to third place, with 1.47 million foreign tourists to 1.46 million respectively.

Over the course of 2024 to July, Spain has welcomed 53 million visitors, with 10.5 million coming from the UK, 7.1 million from France and 6.8 million from Germany.

With Spain enjoying the crown of golden child of Europe as it basks in 2.5% economic growth – significantly higher than the countries from whose tourists it welcomes – it comes as no surprise that a majority of this has come in the tourism sector.

Jose Luis Zoreda, president of the Exceltur, a tourism industry association, claimed that ‘we were responsible for 80% of the whole GDP growth of Spain’ in 2023.