ARCHIVED - Spain lost 75 percent of tourists and 79 percent of tourism revenue during July

Spain effectively “lost” 7.4 million tourists during July

It’s no surprise that the tourist visitor and expenditure figures for Spain during July are very low, absolutely justifying the fears of the sector that losses will reach nearly 100 billion euros this year.

Even though tourists returned to Spain during July, the combined effects of a three month lockdown and the low number of visitors in July due to lack of flights, reluctance to commit, restrictions etc, mean that during the first seven months of the year, the number of tourists who visited the country plummeted by 72.4% to 13.2 million, while total spending fell by 72.6% to 14,291 million euros , according to data released this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The arrival of international tourists to Spain fell in July alone by 75%, to just 2.5 million, a loss of more than 16 million foreign tourists,while expenditure decreased by 79.5% compared to the same month last year, a loss of more than 19,000 million (19 billion) euros.

Despite these dramatic figures, the falls observed in July are slightly lower than those registered in June, when the arrival of tourists fell by 97.7% and expenditure by 98.6%.

In July, France, was the main emissor of tourists, the 597,244 visitors,representing more than 24% of the total. However, this is still a decrease of 58.4% compared to 2019.
Germany was the second largest marketplace for Spain with 432,302 visitors (65.2% less) and the United Kingdom provided only 377,886 tourists, a massive loss of 82.5%.

However, so far this year, the United Kingdom still tops the list of foreign tourists with more than 2.4 million tourists despite an overall decrease of 76.9%. This is followed by France (with more than 2 million and a drop of 67.2%) and Germany (with almost 1.8 million tourists, 72.9% less).

Main destinations
The Balearic Islands were the main destination for foreign tourists in July as they opened for business two weeks earlier than the mainland and were seen as the “safest” option, accounting for 24% of total arrivals. Despite a 75% reduction in visitors, 588,000 people came to the archipelago, mostly Germans (42% of the total) and British (16%).

In second place was Catalonia, with 437,000 visitors, which represents a reduction of 81.6% compared to a year ago. Its tourists came mainly from France (41% of the total).

In third place is Andalusia, with 360,000 visitors, 71% less than in July 2019, especially from the United Kingdom (21% of the total) and France (17%).

The region that lost the most volume of tourists in July was the Community of Madrid, which only received 76,000 people, a reduction of 88%.

The Canary Islands are also well below the high figures of last year, with only 215,000 people, 79% less.

The Balearic Islands captured 23.9% of the total, Catalonia (17.7%) and the Valencian Community (15.5%).
However, the three communities saw the arrival of foreign visitors reduced by 74.9%, 81.6% and 69.2%, respectively.

Between January and July, the regions which have received the most tourists were the Canary Islands (with more than 2.9 million and a decrease of 61.4%), Catalonia (with almost 2.8 million and a decrease of 75.6%) and Andalusia (with more than 1.9 million, 72.3% less).

Air continued to be the main route of entry for these tourists, with more than 1.6 million passengers and a decrease of 79.7% in July. 52.8% fewer tourists arrived by road, 93.1% less by port and 78.4% less by rail.

Accommodation figures also suffered significantly, hotels registering a fall of 82.3% and rental housing of almost 70%.

During August the domestic market “saved” the sector from almost total collapse, as cases of Covid started to spread throughout Spain once again and restrictions and quarantines prevented tourists from travelling to Spain.

The sector is expecting considerable job losses this autumn as many hotels and tourism businesses will opt to close altogether rather than trying to carry on through what will be an undoubtedly difficult trading period.