23/09/2012 00:00
TW
0

Palma.—Addressing representatives at a meeting of emerging markets in the capital, Borrego said that August was an exceptional month for the Balearics in particular with one in every four foreign visitors to Spain coming to the islands.

In total, 1.8 million foreign holiday makers came to the region last month, 2.8% more than during August of last year and that the Balearics enjoyed a 23.9% share of the total national tourist industry.

According to the figures released by the Ministry for Industry and Tourism, month on month, last August was the best ever in the history of tourism in Spain, the Secretary of State proclaimed. And, it was the British market that fuelled the August boom apparently posting an increase of 4.7 percent, with Catalonia and the Balearics being the most popular destination.

While, to the contrary, after five consecutive months of steady growth, the German market shrunk by 4.3 percent last month.
However, that was compensation by increases in the Russian, Italian and French markets.
Borrego said that, looking at the global picture of the market month, Spain received a record number of foreign tourists in August, a rare flash of growth for its recession-stricken economy.

Foreign tourist arrivals for the month reached 7.9 million, the highest since records began in 1995, figures from the industry ministry showed. This was five percent higher than a year earlier.

A record had already been set in July with 7.7 million foreign visitors that month, 4.4 percent more than a year earlier.
The number of Russian visitors surged by 47.5 percent, with 17.5 percent more French and 4.7 percent more British visitors than last year.
Spain is suffering from its second recession in three years after a housing boom went bust, throwing millions out of work.
Tourism is a crucial sector, accounting for about 10 percent of gross domestic product, and makes Spain the fourth most-visited country in the world.
So far this year Spain has received just over 40 million tourists, 3.6 percent more than the same period last year, the ministry said in a statement.
The British accounted for the biggest share of visitors to Spain -- 24.1 percent -- while French tourists accounted for 21.7 percent and Germans 13 percent.