By Oyintari Ben
After international visitor arrivals for April were 1.2% higher than in the same month in 2019, Spain expects to welcome more visitors in the summer of 2023 than it did before the COVID-19 epidemic, the tourism minister said on Thursday.
“The data show an unprecedented tourism recovery… Everything seems to indicate that we are going to break records compared to 2019,” Hector Gomez told reporters at a five-star hotel in Madrid.
According to government estimates, Spain will welcome between 52.3 million and 54.8 million tourists between May and October, which is a little increase over the number of travellers during the same period in 2019, a year with a record-breaking volume of visitors.
Spain welcomed 7.2 million foreign tourists in April, coinciding with the peak season’s commencement around Easter.
The minister stated that luring tourists from far-off markets like the US, China, South Korea, and Japan was Spain’s top goal. To improve connectivity, the administration recently conducted multiple talks with Asian airlines, and the official added that certain flights are expected to resume this month.
In April, the number of foreign visitors increased most from the United States, according to government statistics.
During the summer, locals comprise half of the tourists who occupy Spain’s resort hotels and short-term lodging.
The announcement of a hasty general election for July 23, during the holiday season, caught many people off guard.
We lack information regarding travel cancellations. The minister continued, “We do not think that the call for elections will have any impact on tourism.
Before the pandemic, Spain’s tourism industry made up 12% of the country’s GDP; however, by the middle of 2020, both domestic and international travel had all but ceased.
