The number of foreign visitors coming to Spain and the Balearics this year is continuing to rise, setting the country on course for another record-breaking year.
This Bank Holiday weekend in Palma, for example, most of the hotels were fully booked and reserving a table in the best restaurants was complusory to avoid disappointment. And not only is the number of foreign visitiors continuing to rise, the domestic market has certainly enjoyed a signficant revival this year. Spain is on track to achieving its best tourism year after receiving 60.8 million foreign tourists in the first ten months, an increase of 4.4% over the same period last year, resulting in more than 2.5 million more visitors. In October alone nearly 6.5 million foreign tourists arrived in Spain, up 9.7% from a year earlier, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) of the Survey of Tourist Movements at Borders (FRONTUR).
Between January and October, the UK, with 14.3 million, was the leading source market for tourists in Spain, up 4.1%, followed by France with 10.2 million and an increase of 8.1%. With 9.3 million, Germany was the third largest source market for tourists, although in this case the figure represents a slight decline of 0.7%. Italy was the fourth largest market and the one with the second highest growth among the major source markets for tourists going to Spain. This is an additional 3.5 million arrivals and represents an increase of 5.7%.
During the first 10 months of 2015, among international tourists there was a 3.3% increase over the previous year in overnight stays in hotels; a 0.8% increase in tourist apartments; 7.3% in campsites; 9.6% in cottages, and 8.3% in hostels. The UK was also the leading source market for foreign tourists in Spain in October, with more than 1.6 million or 25.3% of the total, followed by Germany, which exceeded one million arrivals, contributing 16.2% to the total. France, which had about 15% of the total and close to one million tourists, sent 958,000, and Italy passed the quarter million mark, with 270,000 visitors, accounting for 4.2%.
The other source countries exceeded 2.5 million arrivals or 39.7% of the total.