Palma and Ibiza are principal destinations for boat tourism

This is highlighted in the Nautical Tourism Study from the Institute of Spanish Tourism (Turespaña).
According to these figures, foreign nautical tourism in Spain brings in more than 960 million euros a year, some two percent of the total.
Within this tourist segment, just three activities bring in more than 80 percent of the expenditure: diving (49.3 percent of the total); boat mooring (20.7 percent); and boat charters (11.7 percent). The total expenditure per nautical tourist is around 1'260 euros, a figure which includes nautical and tourist expenditure, compared with an average expenditure per tourist of 857 euros in 2006.

The average stay of the 600'000 foreign tourists who every year moor in Spanish ports is 11.37 days.
Tourist charters normally have an average duration of seven days, while the average stay for general tourists is nine days.
Nautical tourism in Spain, and the facilities offered for it, has developed from 131 leisure ports in 1976, with 24'305 moorings, to 321 ports in 2005 with 106'795 moorings available.

In Spain there are two clear areas for nautical tourism: the Mediterranean, with 201 leisure ports, 62.2 percent of the total, and the Atlantic Cantabria area, with a lesser number of ports, although in the last few years there has been an increase in installations for leisure boating with 120 ports, some 37.38 percent.

The majority, some 59 percent of the total, are small ports (up to 300 moorings) and are mostly located on the Atlantic coast (Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and the Canaries).

The medium sized ports (300 to 600 moorings) represent 28 percent and the big ports (more than 600 moorings) represent 13 percent of the total, being concentrated in Catalonia (33 percent), Andalucia (19 percent) and Valencia (15 percent).