In spite of the crisis, Spain in 2012 had a record influx of 57.9 million tourists, +1.75% over the previous year, the ministry of tourism made known on Thursday.
The figure is the third highest after 2007 (59.2 million tourists) and 2006 (58.4 million). Visitors last year brought revenue of 57.7 billion euros (+5.9% over 2011), spending an average of 109 euros per person per day.
”2012 was an exceptional year, and we’re hoping that 2013, when many countries will experience signs of recovery, will bring in another good result in terms of both tourists and their spending,” Tourism Minister Jose Manuel Soria told reporters. More visitors came from less crisis-ridden countries: more French (+6.7%), Scandinavians (+6.2%) and Germans (+4.1%) and British (+0.5%) visited Spain last year, against fewer Italians (-4.2%) .
Reflecting crisis levels in their respective countries, Scandinavians were more prone to opening their wallets (+9.8% of overall tourist spending), followed by the British (+8.1%) and Germans (+4.7%), while the French were spendthrift (-3.2%) and Italians even more so (-5.8%).
Two-thirds of Spanish tourism is beach-related, with coastal autonomous regions posting the greatest tourist influx: Catalonia (+13%), Valencia (+9%), the Balearic Islands (+6.4%) and the Canaries (+4.9%), while Madrid posted negative numbers (-1.3%). The ministry in 2013 plans to increase private sector participation in Spanish tourism office Tourespana and to expand into markets with more potential, Soria said. (ANSAmed).
