The Spanish Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism highlights that British visitor numbers to Spain this year exceed 11 million.

The Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Jose Manuel Soria has visited the XXXIII edition of World Travel Market (WTM), accompanied by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Borrego.

The Minister has underlined the government’s objective to reduce public deficit, through a series of measures which have been developed over the last ten months to re-ignite the Spanish economy.

In terms of tourism to Spain the Minister has underlined the importance of the National Tourism Plan (Plan Nacional e Integral de Turismo (PNIT)), which was approved on 22 June as a tool to improve the competitiveness of Spain as a tourism destination and to consolidate their current position as a global leader in this field.

After the press conference the Minister visited all the Spanish exhibitors accompanied by the Secretary of State reinforcing his support for Spanish tourism at one of the world’s most important tourism fairs.

British tourists in Spain

Spain continues to be the UK’s favourite holiday destination. From January to September 2012, more than 11.2 million UK tourists visited Spain, representing a 1.1% year on year increase, accounting for 23.9% of all tourists to Spain. The Canaries, Balearics and Andalucia have been the most popular destinations.

The predictions for future growth are encouraging. This winter, Spain has seen an increase in package holiday bookings from 30.3% to 31.6% and for summer 2013, forward bookings for package holidays are in line with the highs of summer 2012.

One of the most significant results for 2012 is the 8% increase in tourism expenditure between January and September 2012, representing an increased spend of 9.2 million euros. This is in line with the objectives of the National Tourism Plan of increasing tourism expenditure.

The average daily spend of the UK visitor in Spain is 93.5 euros, up 10.1% year on year, with an average spend per visitor of 821.39 euros and an average stay of 8.8 days according to the EGATUR survey published by the Institute of Tourism Studies (Instituto de Estudios Turísticos (IET)).

The loyalty of British visitors to Spain remains high with 85% returning after a previous visit and 42% having visited ten times or more. There is no other overseas destination with such a high level of repetition.

More than 42% of the travellers from the UK to Spain fly from London airports with summer charter connections from Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds.

Traditionally, British tourists have organised their trip to Spain through an operator, which today accounts for 45% of total holidays, with 68% citing leisure holidays as their main motive for travel.

15% of tourists highlighted their motivation for travelling to Spain as visiting families and friends whilst 14% visited Spain for business purposes, Four star hotels turned out to be the most frequent accommodation of choice of the British traveller.

The British tourism market to Spain continues to grow although there is a tendency for tourists to take shorter trips. In terms of average stay British tourists stay in Spain for 8.6 days, which has generated demand for new products and destinations and opens up the market to new sectors such as rural tourism.

Turespaňa at World Travel Market

World Travel Market celebrates its XXXIII edition this year with more than 150 countries participating, 40,000 tourism professionals and more than 3000 media attendees.

New for 2012, the Balearic Islands will join forces with Turespaňa sharing their stand, whilst Andalucia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia, Comunidad Valenciana and Andalusia are exhibiting independently.