British tourists were the big spenders this summer

Tourism spending this summer was two per cent less than last year and down for the first time in six years. According to the results of the study “Tourist spending in the Balearics, summer 2001” carried out at the Balearic University, in real terms tourist spending was up by 2.1 per cent between June and September this year, on last summer, but when an inflation rate of between 3.8 and four per cent is accounted for, there was a deficit in spending. According to professors of applied economics, Eugeni Aguiló and Antoni Sastre, who carried out the research, daily expenditure by visitors this year was up by five per cent on last summer to an average of 9.300 pesetas, but one of the reasons for the global fall in spending is that there is a growing number of tourists coming for short periods of time. The average length of a stay in the Balearics has fallen by three per cent. The experts claim that the fall in the number of German tourists, mainly because of the recession, the recovery of other destinations and the Balearics' “poor image” was all compensated for by the increase in the number of British visitors. The British were also the big spenders this summer, spending an average of 15.000 pesetas per day compared to the German average daily expenditure of 11.500 pesetas.