The closure of the summer tourist season, which the entire sector describes as good, has not helped Catalonia, the main destination for foreign visitors in Spain, to recover all the ground lost since the pandemic. It is the only major recipient of international travelers that remains below in terms of tourist spending in the accumulated year. All this, despite the increase in prices in accommodation, transport and restaurants, as indicated by the data published by the INE on Tuesday.
Catalonia remains the autonomous community that attracts the most foreign tourists and, therefore, where spending is highest in the first eight months of the year. Now, Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community, the Canary Islands and the Community of Madrid already exceed the pre-pandemic figures both in visitors and in spending.
This is not the case of Catalonia, where 12.35 million international tourists arrived until August, 8.65% less than in the same period in 2019, with 13.52 million. The spending made by these travelers so far this year reaches 14.34 million euros, 5.1% below the first eight months of 2019 (15.12 million euros of spending). In the Balearic Islands, the second destination, the 10.5 million foreign tourists received in 2023 have spent almost 13 million euros, 13% more than in the pre-pandemic year. In the Canary Islands, the 8.9 million travelers received have resulted in spending of 13.1 million euros, 17% more. As for Madrid, which has not yet recovered pre-covid visitors, spending has grown by 25% in the period, up to 8.5 million euros.
The General Directorate of Tourism of the Generalitat highlights as factors to explain the situation that Catalonia is the State's first destination in Asian tourism and this is the one that takes the longest to recover – China had travel restrictions until the summer. The lack of Russian and Ukrainian tourism – Catalonia received 66% of all visitors from these countries to Spain before the war – has also played a role.
They also highlight that the average expenditure per person per day in Catalonia has been higher in August than in Spain as a whole, with 173 euros.
In total, the 57.7 million international tourists who have arrived in Spain until August have spent 73,393 million euros in the country, 14.9% more than in 2019 and 24.3% more than last year, that the sector considers it has recovered from the deep crisis it experienced during the covid health crisis.
