Great News for the Spanish Economy

Thousands are flocking to the seaside resort of Benidorm, on Spain’s east coast, as families seek value-for-money holidays after the mass shooting in Tunisia in June. Sunbathers have been cramming on to the Levante and Poniente beaches on what is the first week of the British summer holidays. It also reported that last minute bookings to Greece were down because of the country’s debt crisis. Spain’s renewed popularity has come despite the Foreign Office raising the country’s terrorism threat level to ‘high’ earlier this month. Some 15million Britons visited Spain and its islands last year, up from 11million in 2010. Spain’s popularity peaked in the 1970s when 17million Britons visited each year – but it has since faced competition from more exotic destinations. It comes as it was revealed Spain has set a new record for visitors, with 29.2 million descending on the country in the six months to June – 4.2 per cent more than the same period in 2014. All the regions saw growth, with the exception of Madrid which matched last year’s numbers. The Canarias was the most popular destination taking 32.7% of all tourists, followed by Cataluña and Andalucía with the largest regional increase in the Baleares (+ 20.9%) and Andalucía (+11.6%). This success comes despite a fall of 17.4% in the number of Russian visitors according to Frontur (the Survey of Tourist Frontier Movements) which is dependent on the Ministry for Industry, Energy and Tourism. There are many more visitors from the United Kingdom and Germany, but France and the Scandinavian Counties saw a fall