Madrid: Spain welcomed almost 10 times more tourists this April than in the same month in 2021, according to a monthly survey published by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE).
According to the survey, 6.1 million foreign tourists arrived in Spain in April against 629,000 in the same month 2021, when several Covid-19 restrictions were still in place, reports Xinhua news agency.
In April 2019, Spain welcomed 7.14 million international visitors.
Tourism expenditure is recovering even more strongly as the 6.1 million tourists spent 6,900 million euros ($7,345 million) during their stay, which is close to the 7,056 million euros spent in April 2019.
The recovery is due in part to a significant increase in the number of visitors from the UK.
Around 1.2 million British tourists (20.4 per cent of the total) spent time in Spain in April, a staggering 5,122.8 per cent more than in April 2021.
The number of visitors from Ireland increased by 3,358 per cent year-on-year (YoY), and the respective figures for German and French tourists were 589 per cent and 614 per cent, respectively.
In total, 15,777,565 people vacationed in Spain in the first four months of 2021, with the Canary Islands, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands their main destinations.
A record 83.9 million tourists visited Spain in 2019.
With the main holiday months still ahead, 2022 could see almost a full recovery for a sector that usually contributes around 11 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
–IANS