Tourism at record high in August

World Youth Day, Madrid 2011

SPAIN (Agencies) Spain received 7,640,000 tourists from other countries this last August, according to FRONTUR (Encuesta de Movimientos Turísticos en Frontera, a government agency). This means an increase of 9.4% over the same month last year. The total of foreign tourists visiting Spain so far this year is very close to 40 million, almost 8% than in the same period of 2011. The FRONTUR data, which began its surveys at the frontiers in 1995, shows how each autonomous community evolves in terms of tourism. This year, Madrid won hands down, with an increase of 42.6% in foreign visitors, due mainly to World Youth Day and the Pope's visit. The Ministry of Industry, author of the survey, says that this information 'augurs well for tourism during 2011', which could become 'the fourth best year in the history of tourism in Spain,' following a recovery that began in mid 2010. Some figures:>>>

Standing out in terms of their origin is an increase in visitors from the US, up by 16.7%, Germany (+12.3%) and Italians (+10.5%). Still heading the list, though, are the British, with almost 9.5 million over the year's first eight months.

As to where they were all going, Catalonia was the favoured destination (1.9 million, or +2.9% in August). Behind that came the Balearic Islands (Mayorca, Menorca, Ibiza), with 1.8 million and an increase of 8.5%; Andalucía, 1 million and +5%; Canaries, 821,000, + 16.1%; Valencia region, 737,000, + 9.4%; and Madrid, 550,000, +42.6%.

The favourite way to arrive in Spain is by air, which accounted for an increase of 12.7% in August, with 5.5 million passenger over the year so far, against 1.7 million who came in by car, or 2.6% in August.

Another interesting statistic is that, in terms of accommodation, 4.1 million stayed at hotels (up 6.4%), and 1.6 million (down by 5.1%) stayed at heir own holiday home or with/at friends, while 1.1 million at rentals (up by 36.9%). 823,358 stayed at other kinds of accommodation.

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