24/05/2012 00:00
TW
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Palma.—There were 3.4 percent less tourists visiting the Balearics in April this year compared to the number who came during the same month in 2011, Tourist Movement watchdog “Frontur” revealed yesterday. “Frontur,” reporting to Central Government's Ministry for Tourism, confirmed that just under 600'000 tourists came to the Balearics last month and that from January to April this year, the Islands have hosted nearly 1'100'000. But the four-monthly figure, said the report, highlights a 2.9 percent drop in the number of foreigners coming to the Balearics in comparison with the same period in 2011. The downturn, claimed “Frontur” is largely due to less visitors from the United Kingdom so far this year. The decline in British visitors has meant year-on-year figures were negative last month, even though the number of people from Germany coming to the Balearics actually increased in April in comparison with the same month in 2011.

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But “Frontur's” seasonal report was not entirely negative. The Balearics is clearly still a major on the tourist stage of Spain because 13.1 percent of all visitors last month ended up in the Islands. Leading the tourist rankings last month however, were Catalonia claiming 27.6 percent of the total of all visitors; the Canary Islands (17.5%) and Andalucia (15.9%).

The 1'100'000 people coming to the Balearics over the first four months of the year represented 8 percent of all visitors (13.7 million) to Spain during the same period.

Purely in terms of April this year, 4.5 million visitors came to Spain, 1.7 percent less than in the same month in 2011. The figure is a return to the level of 2009 prior to the boom time enjoyed in Spain after political turmoil in North Africa had forced holiday-makers who would otherwise have gone to countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco further northwards.

However, over the first four months of the year, 1.1 percent more people came on holiday compared to the same period in 2011.
From January to April this year, the number of tourists coming from the United Kingdom to Spain as a whole accounted for 20.9 percent of all visitors, converting the British into the principal key client market for the period.

Nevertheless there were 4 percent less British during these first four months due to the sharp year-on-year decline in UK visitors of 12.9 percent experienced last month.

Germany follows as the second most important client market and in fact there were 2.1% more German nationals coming to Spain between January and April this year. Their numbers accounted for 16.4% of all visitors to the country during the period. Last month alone there were 5.6% more Germans visiting Spain than in April 2011. France was in third place accounting for 15.1% of all tourists during the first four months of the year.