Tourists spent 4.3% more than April last year
April was another great month for tourism in Spain with increases in both the total tourist spend and also the average daily spend.
Tourists visiting Spain during April 2016 spent a total of 5,647 million Euros, representing an increase over the same month in 2015 of 4.3%.
The average expenditure per person stood at 927 euros, an inter-annual decline of 6.2%. However, the average daily spend increased by 1.7% over April 2015 to reach 129 euros.
The average length of stay for international tourists in April was 7.2 days, representing a slight fall of 0.6 days, compared to April in the previous year.
Cumulatively, between March and April the total spending was 10,485 million euros, representing a 6.9% increase over the same period last year.
During the first four months of 2016 the total expenditure increased by 6.4% over the same four months of 2015, to reach 17,900 million euros.
Tourist Origin
Tourists from the UK topped the list of spenders in April accounting for 20.1% of the total, while German tourists made up 14.6% of tourist spend, with the French following with 10.7%.
Spending by UK tourists increased by 14% compared to April last year, while German tourists spent 3% more. Tourists from France increased their spending by 5.1%, while those from Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) increased spending by 8.1%. In contrast, spending by Italian tourists declined 5.5%.
During the first four months of 2016, UK tourists have accrued the highest cumulative spending with 19.2% of the total spent, followed by the Germans accounting for 14% of the total tourist spend.
Destinations by Autonomous Communities
Catalonia saw the most tourist spending in April with 21.8% of the total, while the Canary Islands and Andalusia followed closely with 20% and 18.1%, respectively.
Despite showing the highest percentage of the total, tourists in Catalonia actually spent less than last year with a 6.3% decrease. In contrast, tourists in the Canary Islands increased their spending by 9.3% while Andalusia saw a much larger increase of 17%. Valencia also saw a large increase with tourists spending 15.8% more.
When looking at the first four months of the year, it is the Canary Islands that show the greatest chunk of all tourist spending accounting for 28.4% of the total, while tourist spending in Catalonia accounted for 20.7%.
Accommodation Type and Reason For Travel
Of the total spending in April, 61.1% was for hotel accommodation, representing an annual increase of 10.7%. Meanwhile, spending on non-hotel accommodation increased by 2.4%, when compared to April 2015.
Those tourists not traveling with a tour-package accounted for 70.5% of the total, representing an annual increase of 1.2%. Those traveling with a tour-package increased spending by 12.8%.
The total number of nights spent in Spain (all accommodation types) by international tourists exceeded 43 million, an annual increase of 2.6%.
Andalusia was the community to see the largest number of stays accounting for 21.5% of the total. In April, Andalusia saw 9.4 million overnight stays, a significant increase of 21.6% over the same month in 2015.
The Canary Islands followed with 9.3 million overnight stays, an increase of 8.3%, while Catalonia saw an increase of 17.3% to reach 7.1 million overnight stays by international tourists.
As for the reason for traveling, 80.9% of tourists visiting Spain in April named leisure as their reason for traveling, an increase of 5.5% over the same period last year.
