The £17 billion British visitors to Spain

Asturias has been getting plenty of media coverage in the British press

Tourists arriving to Palma airport. | Ruiz Collado

Humphrey CarterPalma22/03/2024 09:56

For decades the perception has been that the majority of Britons, well most tourists, visiting Mallorca and the Balearics come for the sun, sea and sand. And there was a time when it was also considered a cheap destination - not anymore. However, while the glorious beaches and the weather are still major attractions, the Spanish Tourist Office in London has decided to adopt a different approach to engaging with would-be British holidaymakers by promoting some of the country’s lesser-known destinations and higher added-value cultural, luxury and enogastronomic (food and wine) experiences.

With regard to ‘lesser known’ destinations, Asturias has been getting plenty of media coverage in the British press over the past few months and has been tipped as a potential top destination for British tourists this year.

Manuel Butler, UK director of the Spanish Tourist Office, revealed this week that while Britons last year spent less time in Spain on shorter holidays, they spent more, nearly £17 billion, 12% more than in 2019. And on the back of that, the idea of the new marketing strategy is to target wealthier, generally older holidaymakers.

Could this be the first step of an overall review of tourism promotion across all markets with an aim to having fewer tourists but ones with bigger wallets and deeper pockets?

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Morgan Williams | about 1 year ago

I think it's safe to assume that holidays are easily 12% more expensive in 2024 than 2019. So that rather negates your deeper pockets theory. You also indicate that Brits are fewer and farther between, but spending more than in 2019. Yet all measures show that Spanish tourism continues to grow ... year on year... despite higher prices. So where are all these other tourists coming from? And are they somehow still paying 2019 prices? Or are Brits actually not the dominating "deep pocket" tourist species?

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