Spain drew a record number of foreign visitors between June and September, 2014, the peak summer holiday period, making its best-ever year for tourism, and showing 7.4 percent growth over the same period the previous year.
The number of foreign tourists during the four-month period rose 6.9% over last year to an unprecedented 31 million, the tourism ministry said in a statement, Asr-e-Iran reported.
While Spain may be still entrenched its awful economic slump, it does not appear to have affected the number of visitors coming to the country.
According to Spain’s Industry, Energy and Tourism Minister José Manuel Soria, Spain had its best summer ever in tourism arrivals with some 31 million international tourists between July and September, a 7.4 percent growth over the same period last year. Between January and September some 52.4 million foreign visitors had come to Spain. Soria had forecasted that 2014 will attract more than 63 million international tourists by year’s end, surpassing the 2013 record of 60.6 million.
While tourism regions such as the Canaries (11.4 percent) and the Madrid area (9.6 percent) showed promising growth, Andalusia continues to rule the roost with a record 45 million overnight stays expected in 2014, a 4.3 percent growth that would set an Andalusian record.
Spain triumphantly announced that it has retaken the number three spot in world tourism in 2013, overtaking China by luring a record 65 million international visitors.
It is now behind only France with 83 million international tourist arrivals and second placed United States with 67 million. In 2014 Lonely Planet placed Spain as No. 6 on its list of top destinations.
