Over 2 million Brits arrived in August
In August, Spain received a massive 10.1 million international tourists, 0.5% lower than in the same month last year.
The UK was once again the main source of those tourists. Almost 2.2 million Brits chose Spain for their August holidays, representing 21.5% of the total, but a decrease of 3.1% when compared to August last year.
France and Germany also contributed a large chunk of the visitors with 2 million French (4.6% lower than last year) and 1.1 million Germans (10.7% lower than last year).
Among other countries to show significant growth in the number of visitors to Spain were Ireland (+21%), Switzerland (+10.6%) and the United States(+9.2%).
Destination by Autonomous Community
Catalonia was the main destination for tourists in August, with 23.3% of the total. It was followed by the Balearic Islands (22.3%) and Andalusia (13.8%), according to data from the INE.
Nearly 2.4 million tourists visited Catalonia in August, 3.1% less than in the previous year. The main countries of residence of the visitors to this community are France (with 30.1% of the total) and the United Kingdom (11.3%).
The number of tourists visiting the Balearic Islands decreased by 1.8% and was close to 2.3 million. 28.7% came from the United Kingdom and 26.1% from Germany.
The third most popular destination community by number of tourists was Andalusia, with almost 1.4 million tourists, an annual decrease of 1.9%. The United Kingdom is the main country of origin for these visitors (with 23.4% of the total), followed by France (16.7%).
In the rest of the communities the number of tourists increased by 8.1% in the Valencia Region and 6.9% in the Community of Madrid. Meanwhile, tourist numbers dropped 5.3% in the Canary Islands.
Year to Date
So far this year, international tourism to Spain has grown by 1.5% to reach 58.2 million visitors.
The main emitting countries so far this year are of course the UK (with 12.7 million tourists, a decrease of 1.8% when compared to the first eight months of 2018), France (with more than 8.1 million, and a decrease of 2.1%) and Germany (with more than 7.7 million tourists, very similar to the same period of 2018).
In the first eight months of 2019 the communities that received the most tourists were Catalonia (with more than 13.6 million and an increase of 0.7% over the same period of 2018), the Balearic Islands (with more than 10.1 million and a decrease of 0.2%) and the Canary Islands (with almost 8.7 million, 3.7% less).
The duration of stay for the majority of tourists in August was four to seven nights, with almost 4.4 million tourists, an annual increase of 3.2%.
