Britons marching in Malaga

Dozens of Britons marched in southern Spain to register their concerns about their uncertain status as Britain prepares to leave the European Union. | Reuters

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma17/11/2019 04:01
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SEMrush, a digital marketing tool, has been used to assess the level of concern in Spain about Brexit. This has been done against the background of a study by the CEOE Confederation of Business Organisations, which highlighted the scale of UK-Spanish business, e.g. 7.2% of Spanish exports (18,950 million euros) go to the UK.

The SEMrush assessment was made by analysing Google searches for Brexit and the impact on Spain. It found that from the end of 2017 onwards there were some 250,000 searches on this subject. The four regions where the concern appears to be greatest, based on the number of searches, are Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia.

Search questions included "what is happening with Brexit?". Of other questions that were asked were those to do with Gibraltar and what happens after Brexit. This was particularly so in Andalusia: "Is Gibraltar a country?" was one question. The main type of question that was being asked in Valencia as well as in the Balearics and the Canaries was "what is Brexit already causing?"

This was interpreted as reflecting worries about tourism and property buying. According to the College of Registrars, UK buyers were responsible for 13.3% of foreign purchases of property in the second quarter of 2019, the lowest percentage since current records started.