Low season tourists will often find weather good enough even for a spot of beach sport, and this year's visitors have been spending more than ever.

Low season tourists will often find weather good enough even for a spot of beach sport, and this year's visitors have been spending more than ever. | Teresa Ayuga

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma05/04/2016 00:00
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Foreign tourist spending in the Balearics during February amounted to 170 million euros, says the latest survey of spending (Egatur). This was an increase of almost 46% over last February, and meant that in the first two months of this year there was a total spend of 262 million euros - up by 23%.

Average total spend per tourist in February was 1,032 euros, a rise of 2.5%, while the average daily amount was 131 euros (up by 26%). The length of stay, on the other hand, fell by getting on for 20% to 7.9 days.

The percentage increase in February spending in the Balearics was, by some distance, the highest among the country's principal tourism regions. The increase in Catalonia was 14.1% and in the Canaries it was just under 8%. In Andalusia there was a fall of almost 7%. However, it has to be borne in mind that those three regions between them accounted for virtually 70% of all February tourist spending, with the Canaries alone having been responsible for 34%. The Canaries had an almost identical percentage figure for the total number of overnight stays during February.

In the country as a whole there was 8% tourist spending growth - a total of 3,793 million euros. For January and February together the increase was 5.8% to 7,415 million. UK tourist spending was up by 10.7% in February and accounted for 17.6% of spending for the first two months of the year - the highest amounts in both instances.