ARCHIVED - Off season foreign tourism continues to grow in Murcia

British visitors push Costa Cálida tourism figures up

2014 was a record-breaking year for the Region of Murcia’s tourist sector and the new year has started off in a similar positive vein, according to figures released last week by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism: during the month of January the total of 35,259 foreign visitors to the Region was an improvement of 7.9% compared to the first month of last year.

The Region of Murcia is of course a long way from being the largest in the national tourist industry and is only included in the “other regions” figures, but nonetheless it appears to be gaining in importance: despite accounting for only 1.11% of the national total of foreign visitors in January the rate of annual growth easily outstrips the nationwide average of 3.6%, and so far during this winter’s off season (which began in January) the number of visitors to Murcia from abroad has been 24% higher than in the 2013/14 season.

As is generally the case in winter, the most popular destination for foreign tourists in Spain was the Canary Islands, which accounted for almost a third of the total last month, followed by the regions of Catalunya (23.6% and 746,000 people) and Andalucía (11.7%, 371,000).

This was a large increase for Andalucía, which increased its tourists by over 11% in January.

The “big 6”all increased their visitor numbers, apart from Madrid which lost nearly half a percent:
Canary Islands: 1,035,430
Cataluña: 746,948
Andalucía: 371,524
Madrid: 347,760
Comunidad Valenciana: 255,603
Balearic Islands: 106,160
Everybody else ( the remaining 11 Autonomous Communities): 306,407

As has become the norm in the Costa Cálida, the leading nationality among visitors was once again the British in January, with a year-on-year increase of 34% providing a market share of 24.2%. Second place in the list was taken for the first time by Scandinavia (12.9%), followed by France (11.3%), Germany (7.8%), the Netherlands (7.5%) and Belgium.

The British were also the biggest players nationally, although the French and Germans were more numerous than the Scandinavians across the country.

Scandinavia is an important market for Murcia Today as English is widely spoken in the Nordic nations, and a notable increase in the traffic from Scandinavia has been noted in the last 6 months, as visitors research information online, reflecting the increased visitor numbers and a good, positive Murcia in the future.

These are certainly positive signs for the tourist sector in the Region of Murcia, showing that despite the infrequency of flights into and out of San Javier airport this winter there is still demand for travel to the Costa Cálida from northern Europe. Furthermore, it has to be remembered that those visiting the Region tend to stay for longer periods than tourists in other parts of Spain, due to a large percentage of them owning second homes in Murcia, and as a result each off-season visitor usually spends more money here on average than those enjoying shorter visits elsewhere in the country.