Tourism

🏖️ Tourism

How many foreign tourists come to Spain relative to its population, how much they spend after adjusting for inflation, how much weight that spending carries in the economy, where they sleep and how many homes are advertised as tourist accommodation.

International tourist arrivals per inhabitant: Spain 1.9 France 0.7 (2021)Portugal 2.7Germany 0.4Italy 1Morocco 0.3 (2022)US 0.2China 0 (2020) Greece 2.7 (2022) tourists per inhabitant · 2024 · ONU Turismo vía Our World in Data; población del World Bank All countries →

Tourists: non-resident visitors who spend at least one night in Spain (FRONTUR). Spending (EGATUR) includes international transport, accommodation, food and other purchases made on the trip, and is given in constant 2025 euros. The percentage of GDP compares that spending with nominal GDP: it is a yardstick of size, not tourism's contribution to GDP, because part of the spending goes to companies outside Spain (plane tickets, package holidays). Absolute totals appear only as a reference in the small print.

Trend: from the 2020 collapse to a record

In 2019 there were 1.78 international tourist arrivals per inhabitant. In 2020 the figure fell by 77%, to 0.40 per inhabitant, with 2 months (April and May) without a single recorded arrival; real spending plunged by 78% and hotel nights by 73%. The number of tourists overtook the 2019 figure again in 2023 and in 2025 it was 15.9% higher than before the pandemic (1.97 per inhabitant, 11.0% more, because the population has also grown). Adjusted for inflation, their spending was 20.4% higher than in 2019.

FRONTUR begins in October 2015. In April and May 2020 INE recorded zero tourists because the borders were closed.

How much they spend

In 2025 each tourist spent an average of 1,391 € per trip (2025 euros), compared with 1,339 € in 2019, and 195 € per day, compared with 188 €. The average stay went from 7.1 to 7.1 days. Overall, spending by foreign tourists was equivalent to 8.0% of GDP (7.3% in 2019 and 1.8% in 2020), around 2,742 € per inhabitant.

Hotels and apartments

Overnight stays by resident and non-resident travellers per 1,000 inhabitants. The hotel series begins in 1999 and shows the 2009 crisis and the 2020 collapse.

In 2025, 66.7% of hotel nights were spent by people resident abroad. Occupancy rate: overnight stays divided by available bed-places times the days in the month. The occupancy surveys do not cover tourist flats.

Seasonality

International tourists arriving each month per 1,000 inhabitants, in 2025.0 compared with 2019. In 2025.0 the month with the most arrivals (August) received 2.2 times as many tourists as the month with the fewest (January). Hotel occupancy was 75% in August and 48% in January.

Where they come from

Breakdown of tourists in 2025 by country of residence, and change compared with 2019.

EGATUR only breaks down spending for the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and the Nordic countries. "Resto de Europa" (rest of Europe), "Resto América" (rest of the Americas) and "Resto del Mundo" (rest of the world) are INE groupings.

By region

Overnight stays in hotels and tourist apartments per 1,000 inhabitants in 2025. For Spain as a whole the figure was 9,016; Illes Balears reached 57,664 and Melilla stood at just 1,585.

FRONTUR and EGATUR only break down the six regions that receive the most foreign tourists (main destination of the trip). Per inhabitant:

Tourist flats

INE counts the homes advertised as tourist accommodation on the major platforms (experimental statistics). In May 2026 there were 6.9 tourist flats per 1,000 inhabitants, 1.28% of all dwellings (341,001 homes). That is 10.7% fewer than in the same month of the previous year.

Measured twice a year: February and August until 2024, May and November since then. Because the figures are seasonal (more homes are advertised in summer), each figure is best compared with the same month of another year.

Municipalities with at least 1,000 inhabitants and the highest proportion of tourist flats:

Look up any municipality in Your municipality in data.

Sources: INE — FRONTUR, tourists by country of residence and by region of destination; EGATUR, spending by country and by region; Hotel Occupancy Survey (overnight stays, occupancy); Tourist Apartment Occupancy Survey (overnight stays, occupancy); tourist flats by municipality and as a % of dwellings (experimental statistics); CPI and population. GDP: Eurostat (namq_10_gdp).