71.6 million tourists visited Spain in 2022

The number of tourists visiting Spain recovered by 130% to 71.6 million in 2022, compared to the previous year hit by Covid.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the strong recovery was still not enough to match the pre-Covid 2019, remaining 14% below.

This was despite a strong recovery in the first half of the year, with foreign visitors at 92% of their pre-Covid level in July.

But the recovery foundered in the second half of the year, possibly due to high inflation and energy prices affecting purchasing power.

On the other hand, domestic tourism has recovered much faster, throwing a lifeline into the industry.

The Tourism Outlook report by tourism industry body Exceltur said that the sector’s GDP reached 159 billion euros in 2022, 1.4% more than the previous year and 4.7% more than in 2018.

The report added that 61% of economic growth in Spain last year was due to tourism.

Exceltur pointed out that the first quarter of 2022 was marked by the rise in energy prices and supply problems due to the war in Ukraine, as well as the Omicron Covid variant, but that as of April there was a recovery of the travel, especially in the leisure, meeting and congress sectors

The agency believes that pent-up demand and the desire to travel have outweighed the adverse effects on personal income caused by inflation.

Exceltur expects an upward trend to consolidate throughout 2023, and a return to normality in international mobility, especially that of Asian travelers to Spain, plus the faithful Latin American market, with special focus on Mexican trade, which grew 80% last year.

The report noted that a large increase in domestic tourism activity boosted the sector as the foreign visitor market continued to recover.

As for profitability, Exceltur said: “Business results will continue to be affected by the still high energy, supply, and financial prices and increases in salary costs.”

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