Valencia breaks records with visitor numbers

JULY was a record-breaking month for the Valencia region with almost one million visitors from abroad coming to the sun.

For the first time ever the region welcomed 911,315 people from overseas, 8.9 per cent more than in July 2014, tourism department representative Francesc Colomer has reported.

Over the first seven months of the year 3.6 million tourists from abroad have been to Valencia, four per cent more than between January and July last year, according to a new report on the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism’s Frontur tourism surveys.

While the results, Colomer said, were very positive and confirmed the potential of the tourism sector as an important way to generate jobs and income in the area, the numbers could be due in part to instability in other Mediterranean destinations, meaning work must be done to ensure Valencia continues to attract people back.

“The situation should motivate us all to plan ahead and work on ways to encourage people to return,” Colomer said, stressing that improvements to the sector are needed to ensure it continues to seduce visitors in the future.