Foreign tourist arrivals in Spain up 1.1 percent
Arrivals of foreign tourists in Spain have reversed an 18 month decline with a 1.1 percent increase in January over the same period in 2009 for a total of 2.5 million visitors.
Contributing to the increase have been boosts in visitors from France, up 5.5 percent; Italy, 19.1 percent; Belgium 5.9 percent; and Switzerland, 16.5 percent, according to the Frontur survey, prepared by the Industry Ministry.
At the same time, a decline of 8.1 percent was seen in arrivals from Britain, the biggest source of visitors to Spain.
Germany also reduced its rate of decline compared with previous months to 6.3 percent in January, after ending 2009 down 11.3 percent for the year.
The canary Islands were the chief tourist destination in January, nabbing 31.3 percent of the total for an increase of 1.6 percent, reversing the declining curve in evidence since the end of 2008.
Spain remained the prime tourist destination of the European Union in 2009, according to data provided Monday by Eurostat, the bloc’s statistics agency.
Eurostat, which bases its figures its figures on the number of overnight stays in hotels, said that these reached 251 million last year, a drop of 6.5 percent compared with 2008
Source: Sur in English, February 26th to March 4th 2010
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