Inbound Tourists in Spain Spent €77 Billion in 2016

The number of visitors to Spain hit a new record in 2016, the government said on Thursday.

It was the fourth consecutive record year with numbers boosted by security concerns in some other Mediterranean holiday destinations such as Turkey and North Africa, Euronews reported.

The total was up by 9.9% from 2015, with 75.3 million international visitors. They spent €77 billion, 8.3% more than in 2015.

“Far be it from me to think that we have hit a ceiling, we are far from that,” Spain’s Tourism Minister Alvaro Nadal told a news conference.

Britons again topped the list with 17 million visitors to Spain in 2016, about one in five of the total and a 12.3 percent increase over the previous year.

“There was no Brexit effect in 2016, it did not affect British tourism in our country,” said Nadal, before adding this trend should continue this year.

Spain was the third most visited country in the world in 2015 after France and the United States, according to the WTO. It will unveil its ranking for 2016 on Tuesday.

Each foreign tourist spent an average of €1,023, a 3.75% increase over the 2015 figure.

Spain’s thriving tourism industry accounts for around 11% of its gross domestic product and employs one in eight people in the workforce, according to analysts Ernst and Young.

It is the third most visited country in the world, with the tourism sector fuelling an annual job surge over the summer months.

The country hosts its annual large-scale International Tourism Trade Fair—popularly known as FITUR—next week, with organizers saying the boom has helped boost participation by 10% from last year. Iran is also expected to participate in the event.