During August, Brits spent €74.6 million a DAY in Spain

Drinks, food, shopping and hotels – Brits have dug deep in Spain this August.

If there were any doubt just how vital the British were to Spain’s tourism industry, recent statistics published by the country’s tourism ministry have put paid to that, revealing that in August this year visitors from the UK accounted for 22.3% of all tourist spending…

This worked out at a total of €2.3 billion spent by Brits in Spain in August, the equivalent of €74.6 million every day, which is around €116 per person, per day.

This data reflects a strong tourism trend for Spain so far in 2016, with visitor numbers set to smash all records. For the Brits, it is simply a continuation of a trend that is decades-old, and serves to confirm Spain’s place in the hearts of UK holidaymakers.

Overall, Spain’s coffers were boosted by €334 million extra income from tourism every day in August, with French and German tourists doing their bit too, each accounting for around 14% of tourist spend for the month.

Compared to last year, Brits spent 3.5% more money this August, while Germans upped their overall spending by 0.2% and the French by a massive 9.1%.

The only slight fly in the ointment was net spend per head compared to 2015, with the average tourist’s daily outlay of €116 per person slightly less than last year, and down 1.9% when collated against the average length of stay.

So while more people are visiting Spain, they are ever-so-slightly tightening their purse strings compared to last summer. However, this is a largely negligible downside to what has been a wonderfully positive summer season for Spain’s tourism sector.

Across the country there is positivity as most regions record high levels of tourism spending. For the year to date, tourists have spent €53.3 billion in Spain, which is a 7.1% increase on 2015. Indeed, for the first eight months of this year, visitors have spent as much money in Spain as recorded in the whole of 2012 – and there are still four more months to go.

Again, when extrapolated across the first eight months of the year, the Brits account for the bulk of spending – 21.1% – which is an 11.8% increase on the same period in 2015.