The country in Europe that achieved record revenues from tourism last year. More than 85 million tourists crossed borders

The number of foreign visitors to Spain also stood at a record high in 2023: 85.1 million. Arrivals to Spain increased by 18.7% compared to 2022 and exceeded the pre-pandemic level, when 83.5 million were registered, data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) show.

Last year, most foreign visitors came from the UK (17.3 million, slightly below 2019’s 18 million), France (11.8 million) and Germany (10.8 million). The largest expenditures were made by tourists from the UK (19.947 billion euros, an advance of 16.3% compared to 2022), Germany (12.978 billion euros, an increase of 12.6%) and France (9.767 billion euros, an expansion of 19.7%).

The main destinations chosen by tourists in 2023 were Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.

In December, 5.2 million foreign tourists visited Spain, an advance of 26.2% compared to the same period in 2022 and 21% compared to the same period in 2019.

For many years the main tourist destinations in the world are France, Spain and the USA.

Tourism is a strategic sector for Spain, as in 2022 it was responsible for 11.6% of gross domestic product and 9.3% of the workforce, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.