Foreign tourists drop €9.01 billion in first quarter of 2012

SPAIN The Tourist Expenditure Survey report by the Ministry for Industry, Energy and Tourism, says that inbound tourists spent a total of €9.01 billion in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 7.4% year-on-year. This means that average total daily spending was €108, up by 13.8% since last year, and breaks down to a per-person average of  €984 for the quarter, up by 4.7%. The report has the British tourist heading the list, who spent a total of €631million in March alone, an increase of 10% over March 2011. Second came the Germans (€598 million, down 0.6%), followed by tourists from the Nordic Countries (€507 million, up 14.3%). The most-favoured destinations were: the Canary Islands (33.8% of total inbound tourist expenditure, growth of 6.2%), Catalonia (20.2% of total, up by 17.3%) and Madrid (11.3%, +14.3%).