Total spending by international tourists in January exceeded 7.1 billion euros, 8.9% more than in the first month of 2024

The tourism sector in Spain has begun 2025 as it ended 2024, with growth and record figures. In January, total spending by international tourists increased by 8.9% to over 7.1 billion euros, and the number of foreign tourists grew by 6.1%, exceeding the figure of 5.1 million travellers, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

These figures continue the trend of previous months, in which the growth in spending at the destination has been significantly higher than the increase in the number of arrivals. By markets and communities, the United Kingdom was the country of residence with the most tourists and the Canary Islands was the number one destination of choice.

In January, each visitor spent an average of 1,408 euros, 2.7% more than last year, and spending per day also reflected this growth, reaching 165 euros, an increase of 4.3% year-on-year. The majority of tourists - almost 2.2 million - stayed between four and seven nights, with an annual increase of 5.2%. More than 4 million tourists travelled without a package tour in January, a 7.3% increase.

Notable growth in distant markets

In January, the main outbound tourist markets experienced growth in arrivals compared to the previous year, except in the case of the German market, which does however continue to grow in terms of expenditure. For yet another month, the United Kingdom is the leading country of origin of visitors, with 863,286 visitors and a 3.6% increase compared to the same month last year. In terms of spending at destination, UK citizens spent 1.096 billion euros in Spain in January, 2.5% more than in January 2024.

In second place, 641,201 tourists arrived from France in January, an increase of 12.2% over January 2024. Spending by French tourists amounted to 545 million euros, 24.7% higher than in January of the previous year. France is the fourth country -after the United Kingdom, the Nordic countries and Germany- in terms of destination spending in the first month of the year.

Germany, on the other hand, saw a 2.4% drop in number of tourists compared to January 2024, to 537,842 international tourists, who did however spend more than in January a year ago: 792 million, an increase of 6% year-on-year. German tourists are still second only to the British in terms of spending.

In terms of arrivals in January, the number of international tourists in the 'rest of the world' category (everywhere that is not Europe, the United States and the rest of America) grew by a significant 25.8%. Likewise, the number of tourists from the American continent increased by 7.4 percent in January. This growth in the number of tourists arriving from outside Europe and America is correlated with an increase in spending at the destination, which rose by 9.5% to almost 3.8 billion euros for these distant markets.

Madrid and Catalonia, the fastest growing regions

In terms of the autonomous communities, as usual in this month, the Canary Islands was the top destination for tourists in January, with 26.9% of the total (1.36 million in absolute terms). It was followed by Catalonia (21.3% and 1.07 million) and the Community of Madrid (13.9% and 704,362 tourists).

In January, the community that experienced the highest year-on-year growth among the main ones was Madrid, with an increase of 15.7% compared to a year ago. In second place is Catalonia, with 12.4% more tourists than in January 2024, and in third place is the Balearic Islands, with 6.1% more.

In terms of spending, Madrid also heads the year-on-year increase for January: 1.390 billion and an increase of 19.8%. It is followed by Andalusia - with 988 million and a growth of 9.7% - and the Balearic Islands, with 187 million of spending in destination, which represents an increase of 7.3% compared to January last year.

Non official translation