Following a slump in January, February tourism in the Balearics rose. | Pere Bota

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In February there was a one per cent increase in the number of foreign tourists who visited Spain. The total was 4,423,576. For January and February combined there was a fall of 0.2% (8,561,947 in all).

The February figures showed a 2.4% rise in UK tourism (a total of 907,321). French tourism was up 2.3% to 580,121, while German tourism was down one per cent to 542,495. The largest percentage increases were 19.4% for the Netherlands (a total of 201,503 tourists) and 21.1% for Portugal (175,949). There was a 59.1% decrease in Chinese tourists. Italian tourism went down 5.5% and Russian by 6.9%.

In the Balearics, foreign tourism rose by 0.7% to 185,550. This gave an adjustment of minus 11.3% for January and February combined, there having been a decrease of over 25% in January. For the two months together, the total number of foreign tourists was 289,452. In February, 60.7% of foreign tourists in the Balearics were from Germany; the UK accounted for 10.4%.

The highest percentage increase in February was in Valencia - up 15.1% to 528,440 foreign tourists. The Canary Islands received the most tourists - 1.17 million, a drop of 0.8%.

Tourist spending in Spain in February rose by 1.2% compared with the same month last year. The total was 4,714 million euros. UK tourist spending was 16.6% of this, the highest percentage, followed by German spending (12.1%).