The figures for July's tourist numbers have been much anticipated, as it had been wondered if monthly increases since the start of this year would be sustained. The publication of the figures by the National Statistics Institute on Friday removes all doubt. In July, the Balearics attracted 3,005,336 tourists, the first time that there have ever been more than three million tourists in a given month.
Of these three million, 2.44 million were foreign tourists, an increase of 7.2% compared with 2022. From January to July, the total number of foreign tourists rose nine per cent. The main foreign markets in July were, as ever, British (26.2% of the total) and German (25.1%).
The Balearics attracted 24.1% of all foreign tourists who travelled to Spain in July. For the country as a whole there were 10.1 million foreign tourists, an increase of 11.4% over last year.
If the trend continues, it is highly likely that 2023 will be a record year in terms of numbers of tourists in the Balearics. For foreign and Spanish tourists combined, a total of 10.13 million for the first seven months was higher than last year and also higher than in pre-pandemic 2018 and 2019 (2018 is currently the record year at over 16.5 million for the twelve months).
The level of tourist spending in the Balearics is also well up. For foreign tourists in July, the total spending was up 16.7% to 3,281 million euros compared with 2022. For Spanish and foreign tourists combined over the first seven months, the total spending was just under 11,000 million euros, over 1,800 million more than in pre-pandemic 2019.