International tourism on the rise in Spain

Spain last March received the visit of 5.4 million international tourists, which represents an increase of 9.6% over the same month of the previous year.

During the first three months of 2018 the number of tourists visiting Spain increased by 6% and exceeded 13.7 million. This data does not include travelers in transit or visitors of a single day without overnight stay.

The country that contributed more visitors in March was the United Kingdom, with almost 1.2 million tourists (22% of the total) and an increase of 5.6% over the same period of 2017. The following countries in this ranking were Germany (almost 820,000) and France (650,000).


The regions that received more tourists during the past month of March were the Canary Islands (25% of the total) and Catalonia (22.5%). Andalusia was the third with 14% of the total number of tourists arriving to Spain.

In absolute figures, the Canary Islands was visited by just over 1.3 million tourists in March, 5% more than in March 2017, while Catalonia received just over 1.2 million tourists, 5.1% more than in the same month of 2017. In the case of Andalusia, there were almost 785,000 tourists, 8.9% more than the previous year.

If we analyze the accumulated figures for the first three months of 2018, Canarias is in first place with more than 3.7 million visitors, which represents an increase of 1.7% over the same period of 2017. Catalonia occupies the second position with almost 3.1 million tourists and an increase of 3.4%. Andalusia is third with more than 1.9 million visitors and a growth of 4.4%.