Andalucía: a favourite destination for foreign tourists with the UK remaining the leading international market

Of the country's four major tourist regions the south of Spain has witnessed the highest growth in visitors from other countries

Pilar Martínez

Malaga

Wednesday, 3 April 2024, 18:40

The year could not have got off to a better start for Andalusian tourism in terms of international visitors. Of the four main tourist areas of Spain, Andalucía has become the region with the highest growth in foreign tourist arrivals.

This increase places it as the third favourite destination in the country for foreign travellers after the Canary Islands and Catalonia. They are also increasing in visitor numbers, but at a slower rate than Andalucía according to the Statistics on Tourist Movements at Borders (FRONTUR) published each month by Spain's institute for national statistics (INE).

The report revealed that Spain received five million international tourists in February, 15.9% more than the same month in 2023 and in the first two months of this year the number of tourists increased by 15.6%.

Andalucía most popular among UK travellers

However, Andalusian destinations grew three points above this average and ended January and February with almost 1.4 million foreign visitors. This was 14.5% of the country's total and 18% more than in the first two months of 2023. The United Kingdom remains the leading international market for Andalucía.

These international tourists spent 13.3 million euros at the beginning of the year and the INE report details that the UK was the country with the highest cumulative expenditure with 16.8% of the total.

The UK was followed by Germany with 11.8% and Nordic countries with 8.6%. In terms of spend, Andalucía was in fourth place with Madrid coming third after growing by almost 37% in tourist spend.

Daily expenditure

The INE report showed that the Canary Islands were the most popular destination in February this year with 32.3% of the total, then Catalonia with 16.4% and Madrid with 14.7%. The INE specified that tourist expenditure increased by 21.6% in the Canary Islands, 17.8% in Catalonia and 36.9% in Madrid compared with last year.

Andalusian destinations earned 975 million euros from international visitors, an increase of 35%. The average budget per tourist was 1,343 euros, an increase of almost 14% and the average daily expenditure also increased to 154 euros; a rise of 18.8%. However, in both cases the numbers are below the national average.

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