Catalonia visited by 19 million foreign tourists in 2018

Country most popular place in Spain for visitors

Tourists in coastal town of Roses in July (ACN)
Tourists in coastal town of Roses in July (ACN) / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

February 1, 2019 01:16 PM

Catalonia continued to be the main destination for foreign visitors to Spain in 2018, with a total of 19.1 million visits, matching the number for the previous year.

In all, Catalonia accounted for 23.1% of all visits by foreign tourists to Spain, followed by the Balearic Islands (16.7%) and then the Canary Islands (16.6%).

The figures from the National Statistics Institute also show that Catalonia is the destination where foreign visitors spent the most, some 20.6 million euros, a 7.2% rise on 2017.

The average spending by foreign tourists was 1,078 euros, 7.2% more, with average daily spending per person amounting to 185 euros, an increase of 9.7%.

For Spain as a whole, foreign visitors spent a total of 89.8 million euros, at an average of 1,086 euros per person (up 2.2%), with each person spending an average of 146 euros a day, a rise of 7.4%.

The foreign visitors who spent the most were the British, at 17.7 million euros, up 2.8%, followed by 12 million spent by Germans (down 1.9%) and then the French, at 7.3 million euros, or 4.7% more.