Record numbers of international visitors hit Spain

AS recently predicted by Euro Weekly News, events in Tunisia and fear of terrorist attacks have led to an avalanche of extra visitors arriving in Spain from abroad.

The country has once again broken its own records by registering 29.2 million visitors from abroad over the first six months of the year, 1.2 million more than during the first half of 2014, with beaches in Benidorm and the Costa Blanca packed sardine-style and the Costa del Sol likely to be next.

The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism’s Frontur survey revealed that 2015 registered the best first half of a year ever for international tourism. In June alone almost 6.7 million visitors entered the country, the highest June figure ever recorded.

The UK was once again the place the most visitors came from with 6.7 million registered, followed by Germany with 4.7 million and France with 4.6 million.

Yet the highest increases in visitor numbers were from the US, with a 15.7 per cent increase reaching a total of 661,612 visitors, Switzerland with a 9.7 per cent increase to 755,950, Belgium with a 7.8 per cent increase to 974,398, Ireland with a 7.4 per cent increase to 624,761 and Italy with a 7.3 per cent increase to 1.6 million.

Meanwhile the number of visitors coming from Russia and Scandinavian countries continued to fall, the survey revealed.