The working conditions of those who make it possible for Spain to be an attractive tourist destination – floor maids and hospitality staff, among others – do not notice it and are still very improvable, as reported by the affected workers, but the main industry of the country is still hitting record numbers and beating its own records year after year.
This is confirmed by the Statistics of Tourist Movements in Borders (FRONTUR), whose data for 2017 have been released today by the National Institute of Statistics.
During 2017, a total of 81.8 million tourists visited Spain, which meant an increase of 8.6% over the previous year.
In December, four million tourists passed through Spain, 0.2% less than in the same month of 2016.
The INE has also published the Tourism Expenditure Survey (Egatur), whose main result is that the total expenditure made by tourists not resident in Spain during the year 2017 was 86,823 million euros , with a increase of 12.2% with respect to 2016.
By Autonomous Communities of destination, those that concentrated most spending by tourists in 2017 were Catalonia (with 19,152 million euros, 9.7% more than in 2016), Canarias (with 16,780 million and an increase of 11.4 %) and Illes Balears (with 14,591 million and an increase of 12.2%).
The main countries of residence of tourists were the United Kingdom, Germany and France. The arrival of tourists residing in the United Kingdom increased by 6.2% and that of German tourists by 6.1%. On the contrary, the number of tourists from France fell by 0.1%.
Catalonia was the main destination community in 2017, with 19 million tourists, 5% more than in 2016. Behind were Canarias (with 14.2 million and an increase of 7.2%) and Illes Balears (with 13 , 8 million and an increase of 6.1%).
On the other hand, Andalucía received 11.5 million tourists (8.9% more than in 2016), Comunitat Valenciana 8.9 million (15.3% more) and Comunidad de Madrid 6.7 million (with an increase 15.8%).
Regarding the form of entry into Spain, 66.6 million tourists used the airway, which meant an increase of 10.4%. By road, 12.9 million arrived, 0.7% less.
By type of accommodation, the market was used by 65 million tourists (9.0% more) and non-market by 16.8 million (7.2% more).
The main reason for tourists on their trips to Spain during 2017 were leisure, recreation and vacations. For that cause, 71 million arrived, with an annual growth of 10.5%. By business, professional reasons came 4.7 million tourists (0.6% more) and for other reasons, 6 million (4.4% less).
The duration of the majority stay among tourists in 2017 was four to seven nights, with 38 million tourists and an increase of 8.8%.
Regarding the form of organization of the trip, 57.8 million tourists arrived in Spain without tourism package (10.5% more than in 2016) and 24.0 million with tourist package (4.3% more) .
