Tourism spending soars by 16% in July and the arrival of visitors exceeds the pre-pandemic level

In July, tourism managed to exceed the level of foreign visitors recorded before the pandemic, another sign that the sector remains strong despite the economic turbulence. Spain received 10.1 million tourists during that month, 11.4% more than last year and 2.6% above July 2019, before the coronavirus paralyzed travel around the world. This is the second best July in the series from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) after the record of 2017, when 10.49 million foreigners arrived. Total spending shoots up to 13,853 million euros, 16.4% more than in 2022 and 16% more than in 2019, fueled by inflation.

Tourism revenues will be essential for GDP growth in 2023, for the second consecutive year, amid a scenario of economic slowdown. The average cost per tourist was 1,367 euros, with an annual increase of 4.4%, and the average daily cost grew by 9.0%, up to 185 euros, due to increases in the prices of hotels, restaurants and transport . On the other hand, the average duration of the trips was shorter: 7.4 days, which is 0.3 days less than in July 2022. In the first seven months of 2023 as a whole, total spending amounted to 59,864 million, a 25% more than last year. These data show, according to experts, that the erosion of purchasing power due to inflation is affecting tourism less due to citizens’ desire to travel after the pandemic.

With a few exceptions, tourist arrivals had so far touched pre-pandemic levels without exceeding them. Thus, in the first seven months of 2023 the number of tourists visiting Spain increased by 20.9%, up to 39.4 million, 0.8% below the 2019 data.

The recovery of the large traditional markets, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France (2, 1.6 and 1.1 million arrivals, respectively) are key to explaining the improvement. But the arrivals of residents in these countries are still below 2019 levels, except in the case of France. Meanwhile, there is notable growth in other markets. This is the case of the United States, with 469,319 arrivals of citizens from that country in July, 28% more than in July of last year and 18% more than in 2019. Portugal, Italy and France have also grown in the last year , but the levels are similar to those of 2019. The Netherlands and the Nordic countries remain well below before the pandemic.

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