Over ten million foreign tourists visited Balearics

According to the annual report published by the Ministry for Tourism, Industry and Energy yesterday, the Balearics was the third most popular holiday destination in Spain for foreign visitors after the Canary Islands and Cataluña which attracted 10.18 and 13-7 million respectively.

The Ministry reported yesterday that the driving force behind the recovery in the market was the British market.
In total, 57 million foreign tourists came to Spain, 7.6 percent more than in 2010 but not as high as the all time record of 59.2 million set in 2007.
Of those, 13.6 were from the UK, nearly ten percent or 1.2 million more than in 2010 followed by nine million Germans, 2.5 percent more than during the previous year and 8.5 million French, 8.1 percent more than in 2010.

In fact, 24 out of every 100 foreign visitors to Spain last year was from the UK and the tourism authorities are hoping that the British market will perform at least as well, if not better, this year, but as the Bulletin has reported, there are a host of major events happening in the UK this summer which could encourage many people to remain at home, especially if the weather is good.

Come the end of this week, the British tour operators should have a clear idea of how this Easter and Summer is selling, although the five week gap between Easter and Whitsun is going to be a problem to fill.