International Tourist Influx: Spanish Economy Booster

A noteworthy contribution to the Spanish economy, income from foreign tourists hit record levels, which has just emerged from five years of stop-start recession that left the nation with

a unemployment. Now Spain stood behind France only with 83 million international tourist arrivals and second placed United States with 67 million.

According to government figures, spending by international tourists in the first 11 months of 2013 grew by 8.7 per cent from the same period last year to 55.9 billion euros ($76 billion). The tourism industry accounted for 10.9 per cent of Spain’s total economic output in 2012, and 11.9 per cent of all jobs.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said, even without the official figures for the whole year, it is already possible to say that 2013 was a record in terms of tourism spending.
The report by Spain’s Industry, Energy and Tourism Ministry, shows British tourists led the way to Spain in 2013, with some 14.3 million of them accounting for 23.6 per cent of all foreign tourists.

The top destinations in Spain were Catalonia, followed by the Balearic Islands such as Majorca with 11.1 million international influxes. Spanish tourism industry association Exceltur forecasts that the tourism industry will grow by 1.8 per cent in 2014.