Tourist spending in Spain smashes further records

Spain continues to attract tourists in record numbers, with 2014 off to an encouraging start

Foreign tourists visiting Spain spent a record €10.06 billion in the first three months of the year, smashing previous records and registering an 8.1 per cent increase on expenditure figures for the same period last year, according to data released by Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.

In March alone, almost €4 billion was spent by overseas visitors to Spain – a 6.6 per cent increase in the space of a year, and the sharpest rise in total volumes spent ever recorded, highlighting the renewed levels of confidence and interest currently coursing through Spain’s tourism veins…In terms of average expenditure, tourists to Spain evidently feel more flush than they have done for a while, increasing their average daily outlay by 2.5 per cent to €113 per day. Over the course of the average stay, tourists spent €999 each – a slight increase of 0.8 per cent on last year.

While British holidaymakers ordinarily top these types of charts, it was actually German tourists who were the biggest spendthrifts, accounting for 17.3 per cent of the total tourist spend (€1.74 billion), which was an 11.6 per cent increase on last year, despite the amount of time Germans spent in the country declining slightly, by 0.3 per cent.

British tourists to Spain upped their spending by 4.9 per cent per day, and 6.1 per cent overall, accounting for 16.3 per cent of all foreign expenditure in Spain with €1.64 billion. Brits too, however, cut their average stay by slightly less than one day. In third place were visitors from Scandinavia, who spent an average of €130 per head per day, and €1.51 billion in total. French tourists headed across the border to spend €941 million, which was actually down on this time last year by 2.1 per cent. Overall, expenditure from French tourists in Spain fell most sharply among those nationalities surveyed, which hints at France’s ongoing economic struggles.

American visitors registered the largest increase in average daily spending, shelling out 12.8 per cent more in Spain this year than last year. On average, American tourists spent €2,079 per person, which is the highest average spend of all nationalities. Despite this, collectively American tourists were placed fifth, with a figure of €380 million.

Due to its year-round warm climate, resorts in the Canary Islands attracted the most tourist cash for the start of the year, accounting for 35.9 per cent of the total – an impressive 14.3 per cent increase on last year. In Andalucía, tourist spending was also up by 8.5 per cent, with overseas visitors pouring €1.36 billion into the local economy in the first three months of the year – a figure that is only set to rise as the tourist season begins. Average daily spend in Andalucía was also up by 17.5 per cent, with the Germans, Brits and French all increasing their daily personal outlay.