Foreign tourists spent 32,685 million euros in visit to Spain in first half of 2016 – Xinhua

MADRID, Aug 5 (Xinhua) – Foreign tourists visiting Spain spent during the first six months of 2016 a total of 32,685 million euros, representing an increase of 8.2 percent over the same period the previous year, according to the tourist expenditure Survey (Egatur) published Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE) of Spain.

Egatur indicates that tourists from the United Kingdom were the largest expenditure accumulated in the first half of the year, with 20.6 percent of the total paid and an amount of 6,736 million euros, followed by the Germans, with 14.6 percent and 4,780 million euros and then the French, with 8.6 percent.

also, the source notes that by autonomous communities, in the first half of 2016 the main target regions with the highest cumulative expense are Canary Island, with 21.6 percent of the total, second figure Catalonia, 21.4 percent, and in third place is Andalusia, with 12.2 percent.

the same source reports that from Nordic countries, Denmark Finland, Norway and Sweden, decrease spending by 2.9 percent, while on the other hand, total spending by tourists from Italy rose by 12.3 percent.

the INE said the average length of travel for international tourists was eight days in the first six months of the year, representing a decrease of 4.6 days compared to the average of the same period last year.

Finally, Spain has received in the first half of this year 32.8 million foreign tourists, which is 11.7 percent more than in the same period of 2015 and everything indicates, according to forecasts of tourist agencies, which the country could reach 70 million foreign tourists by the end of the year, considering that last year a record 68.1 million foreign visitors totaled.