Spain's tourist arrivals set 7th consecutive annual record in 2019

A record 83.7 million foreign tourists visited Spain last year, 1.1 percent more than in 2018, the country's Statistical Office (INE) confirmed on Monday preliminary data released in January.

This makes 2019 the seventh consecutive year Spain has set a new tourism record.

In 2019, tourist expenditure in Spain rose by 2.8 percent to 92,278 million euros (102,000 million U.S. dollars), with each tourist spending an average 1,102 euros during their stay, which had an average length of 7.2 days.

Most tourists visiting Spain came from the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and France. The UK remained the main source market despite the collapse of the Thomas Cook travel firm, doubts over the Brexit and the falling value of the British pound.

Approximately 18 million UK citizens visited Spain in 2019, 2.4 percent fewer than in 2018. There were 11.1 million German visitors and 11.1 French tourists -- these figures were 2.1 percent and 1.2 percent down, respectively, on the previous year.

At the same time, the number of visitors from the United States increased by 5.6 percent and those from the rest of the Americas went up by 16.9 percent. There was also a 7.6 percent increase in the number of visitors from the rest of the world (Africa, Asia and the Middle East).

Despite its political problems, the Catalan region in the northeast of Spain continues to be the most popular tourist destination, welcoming 19.3 million visitors in 2019, 0.8 percent more than in 2018. Some 13.6 million foreign tourists traveled to the Balearic Islands and 13.1 million to the Canary Islands.