The number of tourists increased 7.4% in May
May was another great month for Spanish tourism with 7.1 million international tourists visiting, a 7.4% increase over the same month in 2015.
As expected, the UK accounted for the most travellers with over 1.7 million Brits choosing Spain for their spring vacation. This represents 25.1% of the total and is an increase of 9.1% over the same month in the previous year.
German and French tourists also showed an increase in numbers with 1.2 million Germans and just over a million French visitors, increases of 3.3% and 3.2%, respectively.
Other countries to show significant annual growth in tourist numbers were America and Ireland. There were 34.4% more American and 20.1% more Irish visitors when compared to May last year.
January to May
Cumulatively, for the first five months of 2016 Spain has welcomed 25.2 million international tourists representing an 11.4% increase over the same period last year.
So far this year, the UK has accounted for 5.8 million visitors, an increase over the first five months of 2015 of 16.1%. Germany accounted for 3.8 million, an increase of 5.6%, while France has supplied 3.7 million tourists, annual growth of 7.6%.
Looking at communities for the first five months, Catalonia has seen 5.8 million visitors, an increase of 4.1%, while the Canary Islands received 5.4 million, an increase of 11%. Andalusia was visited by 3.7 million tourists representing an annual increase of 18.1%.
Destinations
Catalonia was the first choice destination for the most tourists in May accounting for 23% of the total. The Balearic Islands followed with 22.7% of the total visitors, while Andalusia accounted for 14.8% of visitors in May.
Despite the increase in the percentage of the total tourists, Catalonia actually saw fewer visitors than in May last year reaching 1.6 million, a decline of 1.1%.
In contrast, the Balearic Islands welcomed 1.6 million visitors which represents an annual increase of 8.8%. On the islands, 38.2% of visitors originated in Germany while 28.1% were from the UK.
The third main destination by number of tourists was Andalusia with more than one million visitors representing annual growth of 11.9%. The UK was the main supplier of these tourists with 32.9% being British, while French visitors accounted for 11.3% of Andalusia’s total visitors.
Other communities to see significant growth were Valencia (21.2% increase), the Canary Islands (9.5% increase) and Madrid which saw 3.2% more international tourists.
Leisure, recreation and holidays were the main reasons stated for visiting Spain by 6,055,355 tourists in May, representing annual growth of 5.0%.
Just under half a million visitors stated they were here for business reasons which represents 3.2% annual growth.
