Tourism breaks record once again

RECORD-BREAKING numbers have once more been registered in Spain in terms of tourism volume.

Spain received a total of 9.2 million international tourists in August, 1.6 per cent more than the same month of the previous year, according to the official Survey on Tourism Movements Frontur, released on Tuesday (September 22) by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.

This number surpasses the record reached in August 2014, and also represents a historical record in terms of joint numbers for July and August. Both months saw more than 18 million tourists from abroad.

So far this year, 47.2 tourists have visited Spain, which translates into 4.1 per cent more than the same period in 2014. The Spanish government announced that they have forecast a total 68 million to visit the country by the end of the year, which would also represent a maximum since records began.

Due to the devaluation of the euro, there has been an increase in visitors from the United States by 25 per cent.

Russian tourism numbers, however, continue to decrease by 34.2 per cent, credited to the devaluation of the Russian rouble and the existing crisis with Ukraine. Between 2009 and 2013, Russian tourists had increased by a staggering 275 per cent.

Once more, the country that sent a larger number of tourists was the UK, with 23.3 per cent of the total tourists who arrive in Spain being from Britain, followed by France (22.6 per cent), Germany (12.9 per cent) and Italy (7.4 per cent).

Tourists coming from Asian countries have also grown by 22.1 per cent in August.

Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Andalucia are the regions which received larger number of international tourists with 25.7, 18.5 and 13.5 per cent of the total, respectively.