Tourism in Spain

Teide , the highest point on the Canary Island of Tenerife and also the highest mountain on Spanish territory. The Teide is the third highest island volcano on earth.

The tourism is an important economic factor for Spain . In 2002, with a total of over 11.6 million guests (+ 15.2% compared to 2001), the region of Catalonia was at the top of the list among international tourists. The Canary Islands were also a very popular holiday destination in 2002 (−1.8% compared to 2001). Other areas of tourist interest are the autonomous regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea . a. Andalusia , the Balearic Islands and Valencia . In the city breaks in particular the objectives are Madrid , Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela popular.

Spain is also a popular destination for language travel . In 2005 there were around 171,000 language students in Spain and stayed for an average of 6.5 weeks to complete their language course.

In terms of the countries of origin, the British took the top spot in 2010 with almost 24% of all tourists, followed by the Germans with almost 17%. The French came in third place with 15%. In absolute numbers, around 9 million Germans visited Spain in 2010.

Due to the conflicts in the Arab world, there was an increase of 4.7 percent in 2011. In the following years, the number of visitors to Spain increased, in some cases considerably. In 2012 there were 45,740 tourist accommodation in Spain. The number of overnight stays in hotels, inns and guest houses was 280.7 million in the same year.

According to the World Tourism Organization , the country was the third most popular holiday destination in the world in 2015 (after France and the USA, ahead of China). This year the number of tourist visitors was around 68 million. In 2007, the number of foreign tourists in Spain was 61.6 million.

The Spanish National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estatística, INE) published the figures for 2016 at the end of January. Accordingly, there was again an increase of 10.3% in international visitors to Spain. A total of 75.6 million visitors visited the country in 2016. The majority, 17.8 million, came again from the UK , followed by French (11.37 million) and Germans (11.19 million). The most popular travel destinations were again Catalonia with almost 18 million tourists and the Canaries and the Balearic Islands with 13.29 million each.

The following table gives an overview of the development of the number of arrivals by international guests since 1995. International guests include all people who arrive from abroad and spend the night in the country at least once. The expenses incurred by these guests are also given (calculated in US dollars).

year	Number of international guests	revenue
1995	32,971,000	$ 27.369 billion
2000	46,403,000	$ 32.656 billion
2005	55,914,000	$ 49.565 billion
2006	58,004,000	$ 53.160 billion
2007	58,666,000	$ 59.910 billion
2008	57,192,000	$ 64.422 billion
2009	52,178,000	$ 55.748 billion
2010	52,677,000	$ 54.305 billion
2011	56,177,000	$ 62.447 billion
2012	57,464,000	$ 57.877 billion
2013	60,675,000	$ 62.584 billion
2014	64,939,000	$ 65.099 billion
2015	68,175,000	$ 56.532 billion
2016	75,315,000	$ 60.605 billion
2017	81,786,000	$ 68.437 billion

Web links

Spanish Tourist Office

Individual evidence

^ Statistics from the IET (Spanish Institute for Tourism). Year 2010 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: estadisticas.tourspain.es (Spanish) @1@ 2

↑ Tourism: Spain benefits from the crisis in North Africa. In: Focus.de, accessed on April 26, 2012.

↑ Tourism in Spain - facts and figures. In: Immobilien Mallorca.com, accessed on March 28, 2014.

↑ WTO report 2016 , accessed on October 18, 2016 (English, PDF; 631 kB)

↑ De dónde son, a dónde van y cómo viajan los turistas que inundan España. In: El Paìs, January 31, 2017, accessed February 1, 2017

↑ International tourism, number of arrivals. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .

↑ International tourism, receipts (current US $). Retrieved January 13, 2019 .

[1] Statistics from the IET (Spanish Institute for Tourism). Year 2010 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: estadisticas.tourspain.es (Spanish) @1@ 2

[2] Tourism: Spain benefits from the crisis in North Africa. In: Focus.de, accessed on April 26, 2012.

[3] Tourism in Spain - facts and figures. In: Immobilien Mallorca.com, accessed on March 28, 2014.

[4] WTO report 2016 , accessed on October 18, 2016 (English, PDF; 631 kB)

[5] De dónde son, a dónde van y cómo viajan los turistas que inundan España. In: El Paìs, January 31, 2017, accessed February 1, 2017

[6] International tourism, number of arrivals. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .

[7] International tourism, receipts (current US $). Retrieved January 13, 2019 .