MADRID, June 1 (Reuters) – Nearly ten times as many tourists visited Spain in April compared to the same month last year, spending nearly as much as foreign visitors spent before COVID-19, data from the National Statistical Institute showed on Wednesday .
Before the pandemic, Spain’s tourism sector accounted for 12% of its economy, but in mid-2020 it ceased to exist, along with international travel. It began a bumpy road to recovery in 2021 as those restrictions gradually eased.
In April, 6.1 million tourists visited the country, up from 629,000 a year earlier, spending 6.9 billion euros ($7.4 billion), also about ten times more than the previous year and just short of 7.1 billion euros spent in April 2019.
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Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said visitors were on average spending more and staying longer than before the pandemic. “We are moving towards a better and more profitable tourism model,” she said at an event in Madrid.
Maroto said she hopes spending will reach pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022. “Our outlook for the coming year is very positive. The war (in Ukraine) and its economic consequences do not affect the recovery of tourism, but we must be careful.”
($1 = €0.9324)
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Reporting by Christina Tikjaer and Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro, Toby Chopra and John Stonestreet
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