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ARCHIVED - Spain reports busiest month for international tourism since the start of the pandemic
2.3 million passengers flew into Spain during June and far more are expected from the UK in July
18 months after the first cases of coronavirus were reported in Europe the international tourism sector is still anxiously awaiting the first signs of recovery, and in Spain a little optimism has been provided this week by provisional data released by the government organization Turespaña.
The data show that during June the number of people arriving in Spain from other countries by air reached 2.3 million, the highest monthly total since prior to the start of the pandemic. The figure is still just under 25 per cent of the total for the same month in 2019, but nonetheless is being taken as an indication that the implementation of the EU’s “Covid passport” scheme and the resumption of non-essential travel to and from the UK is sparking the sector back into life.
Commenting on the data, Fernando Valdés, the Secretary of State for Tourism, says that the summer season has started this year earlier and in better condition than in 2020.
As a consequence of the travel restrictions during the winter and Brexit, arrivals from the UK were practically non-existent during the first five months of 2021, but it is reported that during June Spanish airports welcomed 156,341 British visitors. This still remains a very low figure in comparison with the 2 million of June 2019, but is by some distance the highest monthly total since last September and further sharp rises are forecast with the lifting of UK travel restrictions.
At the same time, the UK was overtaken by numerous other sources of foreign visitors during June, including Germany (579,000), France (248,000), Italy (209,000) and the Netherlands (176,737). This is unlikely to be the case for the rest of the summer now that more restrictions have been lifted in the UK.
The data also show that the region to receive most non-Spanish visitors during the month was the Balearics (664,000), followed by Madrid (497,000), Catalunya (364,000), Andalucía (286.000), the Comunidad Valenciana (267,000) and the Canaries (225,000).
The figures relate only to air passengers, but these typically represent between 80 and 90 per cent of all arrivals.