New all time high for tourist numbers

7.64 million tourists visited Spain in August (up 9.4% on August 2010). This is a new all-time high for Spanish tourism data since FRONTUR statistics began to be kept.

According to the figures contained in the Frontier Tourist Movement Survey (FRONTUR) drafted by the Institute for Tourism Statistics of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, the figures for inbound tourists in August exceeded the previous monthly record of 7.63 million tourists in July 2007.

655,000 more inbound tourists visited Spain in August than did so in the same month of last year. Almost forty million inbound tourists came to Spain between January and August 2011, with an increase of 7.8% (or 2.9 million tourists) on the same period last year.

Once again, both the data from August and the increase seen in the accumulated figures underpin the positive outlook for 2011 as a whole, which could become the fourth most successful year for tourism in Spain following a recovery that began in the second half of 2010.

As far as market trends are concerned, there was strong growth in the number of inbound tourists from the United States, both in August and for the year to date, with increases of 16.7% and 15.7%, respectively. The recovery in the number of German tourists coming to Spain was also worthy of note, posting growth of 12.3% in August.

All the major destination autonomous regions posted growth in the number of inbound tourists, especially the Region of Madrid (which received 42.6% more foreign tourists due to the hosting of World Youth Day) and the Canary Islands (which posted growth of 16.1%).

Emitting markets The United Kingdom (with 23.7% of the total and 1.8 million tourists in August) was the top emitting market, with year-on-year growth of 7.7% in August and 8.8% for the year to date. This was therefore the fifth consecutive month of year-on-year growth for the UK market. It was also the market to record the highest growth in August (with 128,000 more tourists), which was concentrated in the Canary Islands, the Region of Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Andalusia.

France, accounting for 19.7% of all visiting tourists, posted growth of 8% in August to a total of 1.5 million tourists, thus becoming the second-largest emitting market of tourists to Spain. This growth in the number of French tourists was especially noticeable in the Balearic Islands, Andalusia and the "all other autonomous regions" category. For the year to date, the number of French tourists visiting Spain grew by 4.2%.

Germany was the third-largest emitting market in August, accounting for 14.1% of the total and more than one million tourists. This growth of 12.3% in August was particularly felt in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. 6.11 million German tourists visited Spain in the first eight months of the year, up 0.8% on the same period last year.

From the remaining markets, the United States, Italy (up 10.5%) and Switzerland (up 7.2%) all performed particularly well.

For the year to date, strong growth was posted by the Netherlands (21.7%), the United States (15.7%) and Switzerland (15.5%).

Main destination autonomous regions Catalonia was the top tourist destination in August, accounting for 24.2% of all international tourists visiting Spain. The region received 1.9 million tourists (up 2.9%), with tourists mainly arriving by air. Strong growth was seen in the number of tourists arriving from the Netherlands, the Rest of Europe, the Rest of America and the United Kingdom.

Accounting for 23.9% of all arriving tourists, the Balearic Islands received 1.8 million tourists in August (up 8.5%) who mainly came from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Rest of Europe.

More than one million international tourists (14.3% of the total) chose to visit Andalusia in August, representing year-on-year growth of 5%. The French, Italian and British markets performed especially well in Andalusia.

The Canary Islands received more than 821,000 international tourists in August (10.7% of the total), representing growth of 16.1% on the same month in 2010. The United Kingdom, Germany and the Rest of Europe topped the list of major markets in this region. For yet another month, the purchase of tourism packages rose in this region by a noteworthy 34.7%.

The Region of Valencia welcomed almost 737,000 foreign tourists in August, 9.4% more than twelve months ago. Growth in August was led by the United Kingdom, the region's top emitting market, followed by France and the Rest of America.

Finally, the Region of Madrid saw growth of 42.6%, with 550,000 tourists in August due to the organisation of World Youth Day 2011. Growth from Italy, the Rest of America and the Rest of the World was also particularly high.

Form of travel, accommodation and organisation The number of tourists arriving by air in August grew by 12.7% to 5.5 million, compared with 1.7 million tourists (up 2.6%) who chose to enter the country by road. Air travel also dominated the list in terms of the figures for the year to date (77.4% of the total), with an increase of 10.3%.

Non-hotel accommodation recorded the highest growth in August (up 13.3%), while the number of tourists who opted for hotel accommodation rose by 6.4%.

The number of tourists who travelled as part of a package holiday rose by 17% in August, while the number of tourists who chose to travel independently rose by 6.7%. The number of tourists travelling as part of a package holiday also grew more than the number of those travelling independently in the first eight months of the year.