Figures from the Frontur report of foreign tourist movement in Spain indicate that foreign tourism in the Balearics increased by 1,034% in February compared with the same month in 2021. There were 149,626 foreign tourists in February, the percentage increase a clear reflection of the Covid travel restrictions that had applied twelve months previously. A more meaningful comparison is with February 2020, prior to the pandemic, when there were 185,550 foreign tourists.
For Spain as a whole, there were 3.15 million foreign tourists in February. In 2021, the total was some 284,000, while in 2020 there were 4.4 million. The UK represented the largest market - 578,568 (907,321 in 2020). The most popular regions in February were the Canaries (968,004 foreign tourists) and Catalonia with 619,390. The Balearics were in sixth spot - Andalusia, Valencia and Madrid were ranked three to five.
Total foreign tourist spending in February was 3,757 million euros. Thirty-seven per cent of this spending was in the Canaries, and UK tourists topped the list for Spain as a whole with 672 million euros.