Look at the numbers: Spain popularity soars as summer arrives

It’s not just the beaches that are beckoning Brits: more and more are attracted to Spain’s cities, its mountains, its history and its lesser-known regions.

The past few months have seen a steady drip-drip of stories suggesting that Spain has seen its tourism numbers rise significantly.

From the turn of the year to the first quarter, and then into April alone, statistics from various sources – travel agents, hotel associations, and even Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) – have all charted this positive trend, prompting many to wonder what has driven it…

And this week the Financial Times has gotten in on the act, analysing the numbers and speaking to those in the know to find out just why Spain is particularly en vogue this year.

The answers are not really surprising, but do bear repeating. Spain’s relative safety, affordability, accessibility, excellent weather and wonderful choice of resorts and property are once again its trump cards. Very few alternative destinations offer this complete package, and this year the country appears to have added a few more strings to its bow – not least in its growing appeal as a city-break and cultural destination.

But before we get on to that, here is a reminder of the facts and figures. INE data published on Monday revealed that for the first four months of the year, Spain welcomed 18.1 million tourists. This is a 13% increase on the same period last year, with April alone drawing 6.1 million visitors.

British holidaymakers accounted for four million of all tourists to Spain in the first quarter – a huge 19.4% increase on last year, and there were also increases for German, Scandinavian and American tourists.

Experts the Financial Times spoke with agreed that the threat of terrorism in many of Spain’s traditional and more recent rival destinations had deterred many holidaymakers from visiting those places, with Spain – and to a lesser extent Bulgaria and Greece – the beneficiaries.

According to Dörte Nordbeck, head of travel and logistics at booking tracker firm GfK, the terrorist attacks in Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt over the past 12 months have really stuck in the minds of tourists.

“Booking behaviour really changed after those attacks,” Nordbeck said. “Bookings are moving from Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia to Spain… but also to Bulgaria and Greece.”

Visitor numbers to Turkey have fallen by a massive 28% in the space of a year, with just 1.75 million tourists in April, while the winter sun resorts of Tunisia and Egypt also saw their bookings take a hit over winter – with Spain’s Canary Islands picking up the slack: bookings were up 23% in the space of a year, said Thomas Cook Group.

“Thomas Cook is trading well to destinations other than Tunisia and Egypt, with particularly strong bookings to Spain and the US,” said the company’s CEO Peter Fankhauser.

However, it is not just terrorism-fuelled security fears that is driving Spain’s popularity. According to the secretary general of Spain’s hoteliers union Cehat, word-of-mouth recommendations and a growing interest in Spanish culture, history and language is spurring ever-greater interest in certain parts of the country.

“There are a big number of British tourists who go to Catalonia to visit Barcelona and to ski,” said Ramón Estalella. “The tourists are not just going to the islands or Mediterranean resorts, but also to the cities.

“And that has nothing to do with Tunisia or terrorism.”