Brit and miss: Spain shunts France from top spot for British holidaymakers

Spain offers the complete - and affordable - package for holidaymakers

We have suspected it for years but now the hard facts have finally arrived: Britons’ love affair with France is over. Sort of.

The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that British visitor numbers to France have fallen by a fifth over the past four years. During that same period, Spain has snaffled top spot in Brits’ affections – in 2012, a whopping 2.3 million more Britons visited Spain than France…

Last year, 8.8 million Brits headed to France for their hols, which is some way down from the peak of 2008, which saw more than 10 million ‘Rosbifs’ flock to France.

But if the French think this is just a typical trend among the more cash-strapped Brits, they should think again – although fewer Brits visited the USA last year, tourist numbers were up for Norway, Italy and Belgium.

So why have the British fallen out of love with France? The economy does play some part of course. Despite being a near neighbour, many parts of France are relatively expensive, particularly when compared to Spain’s Costa del Sol, which has been ranked as the most affordable holiday destination in Europe by The Post Office.

Spain is now the top destination for British holidaymakers, reclaiming top spot after losing 1.2 million visitors in 2009/10. “What has happened in Spain in the last couple of years is that visitor numbers have clawed their way back to where they were,” read the ONS report.

More flight routes, falling hotel prices and increasing job security in the UK have also helped to propel Spain to top spot. Interestingly, the overall number of foreign trips taken by Brits in 2012 fell by 0.5 per cent, but industry experts attribute part of that figure to the fact that the London Olympics encouraged thousands of Brits to stay in the UK to enjoy the summer spectacle, rather than head overseas.

Despite Spain’s popularity among Brits – as either holidaymakers, expats or home buyers – the country’s population has fallen for the first time since the regular census began in the ‘90s.

Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) has reported that the country’s population has fallen to 47.1m – a 206,000 fall in residents from last year. The decline has been attributed almost entirely to South Americans and Eastern Europeans returning to their home countries in the wake of Spain’s ongoing economic difficulties.

However, experts argue that the true figure could be even higher. The official statistics do not take into account the number of Spanish nationals who have left Spain in search of work elsewhere in the EU. In Britain alone, an estimated 70,000 Spaniards have moved to the UK since the turn of the year in the hope of kickstarting their careers.