Tourists to Spain on the rise

Spain welcomed 10.1 million tourists in the first quarter of the year, 7.9 percent more than in the first three months of 2013, it was confirmed by the 'Conyuntur' Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism on Thursday. This positive data has been powered by a 6.7 percent rise in the number of British tourists when compared with the first three months of 2013. A total of 1.9 million British citizens visited Spain during that period, along with 1.6 million French and 1.6 million German tourists, whose numbers rose by 8.8 and 5.2 percent respectively. The Ministry predicts this upwards trend will continue through the second quarter of 2014 when over 17 million foreigners are expected to enjoy holidays in Spain. The Ministry expects a 9.6 percent rise in the number of foreign tourists between April and June. That should lift total earnings from tourism to above the 15 billion euros (20.8 billion U.S. dollars) registered in 2013. The report highlights EU predictions of France performing strongly as a source market and an expected improvement in the number of Italians traveling abroad as Italy comes out of its economic crisis. A drop could see in the number of Russian visitors, but that should be compensated by a continued rise in the number of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Indian tourists over the coming months. The Ministry also points out that Spain's internal tourist market is starting to show "signs of certain recovery" as a result of signs of economic recovery. Enditem