Spain Sets Tourism Record With Over 85 Million Visitors in 2023

Per the National Statistics Institute, 85.1 million visitors traveled to Spain in 2023, a 19 percent increase from the prior year.

According to The Associated Press, the number of foreign visitors last year surpassed the 83.5 million visiting Spain in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic brought a halt to most leisure travel.

The U.K., France and Germany top the list as the three countries who sent the highest number of tourists to Spain.

The National Statistics Institute revealed that Spain’s income from foreign tourists reached 108.7 billion euros ($117 billion) in 2023, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. Tourism accounts for 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Top destinations for travelers to Spain included the northeastern region of Catalonia, including Barcelona, followed by the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands off North Africa.  

For many years, France, Spain and the United States have been the world’s three top tourist destinations.

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