Tourism

Increase in the number of foreign tourists to Balearics

Significant increase in the number of British visitors in August. | MIQUEL A. BORRAS

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter22/09/2015 00:00

In terms of the number of visitors, Balearic tourism increased by 3.1% over the first eight months of the year. There were 8.7 million foreign tourists, says the latest Frontur survey by the national tourism ministry.

In August the increase over July was 0.7% to a total of 2.2 million foreign visitors during the month. The markets which contributed significantly to the volume of tourists were the British, which grew by 1.9% in August compared with the same month in 2014, the Scandinavian, Irish, Swiss and even American. The German market, by contrast, slumped by almost 11%.

As is normal, Catalonia received the most foreign tourists in August - 12.1 million - with the Balearics and the Canaries vying for second spot and Andalusia in fourth with 6.4 million and Valencia fifth with 4.6 million. All these regions showed an increase, the greatest having been in Andalusia where the rise was by 6.7%.

In Spain as a whole, August 2015 was the best August ever. There were 9.23 million foreign tourists, an increase of 1.6%. For the year from January to August, Spain received 47.2 million tourists, which was a rise of 4.1% (1.8 million more visitors).