Spain received 24 million tourists between January and April, 14.5 % more than during the same period in 2023, who spent 31,513 million euros, 22.6 % more, figures that once again smash the records of previous months. According to figures published today by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in April Spain received 7.8 million tourists, 8.3 % more, with an associated expenditure of 9,565 million euros, 13.1 % more, also at record highs.
The accumulated January-April figures already show a homogeneous comparison with last year, because in 2023 this holiday period fell in April and this year it fell in March. The average expenditure per tourist at the end of April was 1,221 euros, with an annual increase of 4.4%, while the average daily expenditure grew by 5.4% to 183 euros, the highest level since this type of data has been collected. The highest expenditure per tourist is in Madrid, with 1,601 euros in each trip, and 310 euros on average per day, although in both cases with falls compared to the previous year, 0.9% in the first case and up to 8.1% in the second. The average stay is up 7.8% to 5.2 days. In other words, tourists stay more days but spend less each day.
Madrid is the only community among the major tourist destinations where average expenditure fell. In Catalonia, the daily average stood at 218 euros (2.6 % more); in the Balearics, at 190 euros (5.7 % more), and in the Canary Islands, at 175 euros (13.9 % more). In the first four months of 2024, the regions with the highest cumulative expenditure were the Canary Islands (with 26 % of the total), Catalonia (17.3 %) and Andalusia (15.3 %).
Considering only the month of April, the leading recipient of expenditure was Catalonia (18.9% of the total), followed by the Canary Islands (17.5%) and Andalusia (15.4%). The United Kingdom remains the largest market with 4.43 million tourists in the first four months of the year, almost 13 % more than a year earlier; followed by Germany, with 3.18 million, 16.9 % more, and France, with 3.14 million, 13.8 % more. All of them at record highs. However, the highest growth as an issuer in the first four months was recorded by Belgium, with an increase of 24.8 % (820,500 tourists), followed by Ireland (almost 690,000 travellers, 18 % more).
In the first four months of 2024, the communities that received the most tourists were the Canary Islands (5.5 million and an increase of 11.4 % compared to the same period in 2023), Catalonia (5 million and an increase of 16.3 %) and Andalusia (3.6 million, up 13.5 %). In April, Catalonia was in first position, with almost 1.7 million tourists, followed by the Balearics (1.19 million) and the Canary Islands (1.18 million). Madrid was the region with the highest year-on-year growth of travellers in April, with an increase of 21.4 %, followed by the Valencian Community, with 16.2 %.
The number of visitors increased by 7.7 % among those who do not stay overnight (excursionists), while it fell by 12 % among tourists with a longer duration (more than 15 nights). The Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, has highlighted the record figures for foreign tourism and has pointed out that the data speak of a tourism “that revolves around quality as a differentiating aspect, with spending at the destination that symbolises the growing idyll of international tourists with a range of modern offers”.