6.6 per cent drop in summer tourism in the Balearics

Sis million tourists holidayed in the Balearics this summer, 6.6 per cent less than summer 2001. The Secretary of State for Tourism and Commerce, Juan Costa, revealed yesterday that Catalonia, with a 16 per cent increase in tourism, has taken over as Spain's most popular summer destination, pushing the Balearics into second place. Costa said that summer, June to September, bookings to the Balearics in the two main source markets, Germany and UK, were down by 15 and 2.4 per cent respectively. With regards to Spain's summer season in general, it was dominated by the UK market. According to the secretary of state, seven million tourists from the United Kingdom spent their summer holiday in Spain, 2.5 per cent more than last year while the 4.8 million Germans represented a 6.1 per cent decline. The other key market was France, 4.4 million French tourists came to Spain, 14'9 per cent more last season. Costa pointed that the five per cent decline in tourism, according to the National Statistics Institute figures which only account for foreign visitors, and the hoteliers' data, which do not account for non-hotel clients, are not a clear indications to how the summer season has performed in Spain.