Andalucía among top three favourite destinations in Spain as Chinese tourists opt for more sun and sand

More Chinese tourists are opting for sun and sand on their travels and selecting Andalucía as one of their favourite Spanish destinations. It comes as China reopened to the world just a few months ago after a lengthy battle to contain Covid-19, with countries now in a race to win back the big tourism spenders.

Spain's national tourism institute, Turespaña, has released a report and guide on how to attract and retain Chinese visitors, explaining that the profile of the typical Chinese traveller has changed, and they were now opting for more coastal destinations after being stuck in lockdown for so long.

The report, which sought to find out which Spanish destinations would be of most interest to Chinese travellers, pointed to Andalucía, Catalonia and the Balearic and Canary islands.

Andalucía is the third favourite region in Spain, after Catalonia, which welcomed 50% of Chinese tourists in 2019, and the Community of Madrid, with 30%. Malaga is also the fourth-most visited Spanish city after Barcelona, Madrid and Palma de Mallorca.

It comes after Andalucía established an agreement with one of the largest travel operators in China. Turespaña pointed out that Ctrip is the favourite agency of the Chinese, handling more than a third of the sales made by online travel agencies in China in 2021.

"The Chinese tourist will no longer be the same as they were. Their tastes and motivations for packing their bags and embarking on a trip have changed, and so has the way they travel,” Turespaña pointed out.

“That stereotypical and clichéd image of groups of tourists getting off a bus at the same time was the trend just before the pandemic, but now Chinese travellers in search of new experiences that allow them to get to know the destination from a local point of view will be the trend for the next few years various studies have concluded," Turespaña added.

Until the pandemic, the arrival of Chinese tourists to Spain had been increasing since 2014, with remarkable figures: the growth was over 140%, rising from 300,000 to more than 700,000 Chinese tourists in 2019.

Egatur data confirmed that in 2019, the average spend of Chinese tourists in Spain, at 2,409 euros, was higher than that of big spenders such as in South Korea, 2,266 euros; Japan, 1,985 euros; or the United States, 1,743 euros.