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Tourist Expenditure Increased 7.8% in May

British tourists contributed 21.5% of the total

British tourists contributed 21.5% of the total

Spain continues to attract record numbers of tourists this year and those tourists are certainly helping with Spain’s economy.

In May, international tourists spent a total of 6,914 million euros representing an increase of 7.8% over the same month in 2015, according to the latest data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The average expenditure per tourist increased slightly to 974 euros showing an annual increase of 0.4%, while the average daily-spend per tourist increased by 4.2%, when compared to May in the previous year, to reach 141€.

During the first five months of this year, the cumulative spend of international tourists visiting Spain increased by 6.8% to reach 24,814 million euros, when comparing to the first five months of 2015.

Country of Origin

The bulk of the spending came from British tourists who accounted for 21.5% of the total expenditure, while the German market accounted for 15.9%, and the French contributed 8.8% of the total.

Spending by UK tourists increase by 10.3% on the annual rate, while German spending increased by 3.8%. French tourists increased their spending by 0.6%. Tourists from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) spent 4.4% more than last year. In contrast, the Italians spent 7.2% less this year when compared to May 2015.

Cumulatively for the first five months of the year the Brits have the highest accumulated expenditure with 19.8% of the total, followed by the Germans with 14.6%, and the Nordic countries which account for 9.6% of the total.

Destinations

Catalonia was the region to receive the most tourist spending in May with 22.3% of the total. Following was the Balearic Islands and Andalusia with 21.1% and 16% of the total, respectively.

Spending in Catalonia increased by 3.6% year-on-year, while both the Balearic Islands and Andalusia saw an increase of 11.3%. Although not in the top three, Valencia saw significant growth with a 14.1% increase in tourist spending, when compared to May last year.

When we look at tourist spending by community for the first five months of the year the Canary Islands take the credit for the most spending with 24.5% of the total, followed by Catalonia which accounted for 21.1%.