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In the first eight months of the year, 15.7 million foreign tourists traveled to Spain, 73 percent less than in the same period last year, the Spanish statistical office (INE) reported this Friday.
Immigrants spent € 16.7 billion in the southern European country between January and August, 74 percent less than income for the first eight months of 2019.
While the largest number of British tourists came to Spain in recent years, this year the French finished in first place with 2.9 million visitors. This is a decrease of 64.7 percent compared to last year. 2.6 million Britons chose a Spanish destination this year, 79% less than last year.
The most popular station was Catalonia, with 3.2 million people traveling there at the end of August, ten million less than a year ago. 5.5 million visitors lost to the second most popular destination in the Canary Islands, with almost 3.2 million visitors between January and August.
According to the INE, the country received a total of 2.4 million tourists in August, a year-on-year decrease of 76 percent. Travelers spent 2.4 billion euros, 79% less than in August 2019.
12.3 percent of Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) comes from tourism, which employs 2.5 million people.
The southern European country was the second most visited country in the world last year with 83.7 million foreign tourists. However, due to the coronavirus epidemic, tourism came to a complete stop in mid-March this year, which only resumed in late June, after allowing free national movement and opening borders.
Many countries, like Great Britain, introduced a quarantine obligation for those coming from Spain in the summer after the number of infections started to rise, causing another blow to tourism that was just recovering.
In Europe, the majority of coronavirus infections have been recorded in Spain, with more than 789,000 cases examined so far.
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