Tourism

Balearics foreign tourism rose six per cent last year

More foreign tourists than ever last year in the Balearics. | S. Amengual

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma01/02/2018 00:00

In 2017 the Balearics attracted a total of 13,790,968 foreign tourists, an increase of 6.1% over 2016 and the highest number ever. Leading the way nationally last year was Catalonia with 19 million foreign tourists (up five per cent), followed by the Canaries with 14.2 million (a rise of over seven per cent), and then the Balearics.

The national total of foreign tourists was 81.4 million, a rise of 8.6%. They spent a total of 86,823 million euros, which was up by more than twelve per cent. The UK provided 19 million tourists (6.2% more than in 2016), followed by Germany with a six per cent rise to 11.7 million and France, for which there was a drop of 0.1% to 11.2 million.

In December there were four million tourists nationwide, which represented an increase of 0.2%. The figure for the Balearics was 99,350, a two per cent drop compared with the same month in 2016. Germany supplied half of the December tourists in the Balearics, with the UK having contributed 15.5%.