American tourist boom in Spain looks to compensate for slump in travellers from China and Japan
Spain has welcomed almost 1.3 million visitors from the U.S. and 1.7 million from Latin America so far this year, some 20% more than in the record year of 2019
Edurne Martínez
Madrid
Monday, 31 July 2023, 18:05
A boom in travellers from the United States and Latin America to Spain is compensating for a dramatic drop in visitors from China and Japan, new data shows.
The Bank of Spain also revealed that the average stay of tourists has grown by 4% this year due to the "diversification of the markets of origin" and the "greater weight of long-distance markets, such as the USA or Mexico" after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Spain's Exceltur tourism sector association also pointed out that the increase in airline ticket prices "forces tourists to compensate for the higher cost of the trip with longer stays".
International tourists spend 30% more on their trips to Spain due to the increase in demand and inflation. Specifically, the average tourist went from spending around 148 euros per day in January to 185 euros in May, according to INE national statistics institute figures.
More than 1.29 million people from the United States travelled to Spain between January and May, this year, 61% more than in the same period last year and even 15% above the figures of 2019. Data also showed that tourists from Latin America have risen to 1.72 million from January to May, 46% more than in 2022 and 23% more than in 2019.
Asia loses its strength
The data is showing a slump in Japanese and Chinese travellers. The number of overnight stays in hotels by Chinese tourists has dropped by 62% this summer compared to before the pandemic, as well as that of Japanese tourists, which has fallen by 57%.
China is losing momentum following an economic boom when the country reopened after the pandemic. The latest forecasts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed that the world economy will grow by only 3% in 2023 and 2024, half a point less than in 2022 and well below the historical average.
One of the worst culprits is China, where GDP growth will slow down 5.2% this year and 4.5% the following year, far from the double-digit figures prior to the pandemic, due to the weakening of investment and external demand, which has caused unemployment among young people to increase. In May it reached 21%, a historic high, and with it has caused its citizens to abandon travel to other countries.
