According to the Ministry of Industry and Tourism in Spain, the most visited tourist destination in the country in 2023 was Catalonia, as it received more than 18 million visitors.
Furthermore, this region also proved to be the one with the highest spending last year, as it managed to generate almost €20.9 billion.
The numbers
As compared to 2022, there was a surge in both tourist revenues and numbers in Catalonia, as they recorded increases of 26.7% and 21.2%, respectively.
The second most popular destination in Spain after Catalonia was the Balearic Islands, as they received more than 14 million visitors, which was 9.1% higher than 2022.
In the same period, 13.9 million visitors were recorded on the Canary Islands, while 10.4 million and 7.5 million visitors were hosted by Valencia and Madrid, respectively.
The Spanish Ministry of Industry and Tourism said that the rest of the communities recorded a growth of 23.8% as a whole as compared to 2022.
As far as spending is concerned, the Spanish region that generated the highest revenues in 2023 after Catalonia was the Canary Islands at €20.33 billion.
The Balearic Islands came next with revenue of €17.72 billion, while €15.36 billion was generated by Andalusia.
There was an increase in income for all of these destinations as compared to 2022.
Arrivals and revenues
The total number of tourists welcomed in Spain in 2023 were 85 million, which is the highest figure ever recorded since the process of recording statistics was initiated.
In addition, this number was an 18.7% increase as compared to 2022 and a 1.9% growth as compared to 2019.
Along with the number of arrivals, there were also record revenues seen last year in Spanish tourism, as they surpassed the €108 billion mark.
The National Institute of Statistics said that this was a 24.7% increase over revenues in 2022 and 18.2% increase over revenues of 2019.
The regions
The United Kingdom was the region from where the majority of tourists visited Spain in 2023, which was around 17.3 million people.
11.8 million people came from France and 10.8 million people came from Germany. As far as spending is concerned, more than 19 billion euros were spent by UK tourists in Spain in 2023.
A total of 9.767 billion euros was spent by French tourists, while 12.9 billion euros were spent by tourists from Germany.
As far as the highest growth is concerned, the list was led by the United States, with 38.7% more people visiting Spain in 2023 than in 2022 and about 16.9% more than 2019, before the pandemic.
A significant sum of €7.8 billion was spent by US citizens, which is a considerable increase from previous years.
Moreover, there was also a 20% increase in the number of Swiss tourists visiting Spain. There was a surge in spending from Swiss and American tourists.
Other than tourism figures, Spain also saw a new record in terms of passenger traffic. 283 million travelers passed through Spain’s Aena airports, which surpassed the pre-pandemic levels.
