New tourist record in Catalonia: 7.4 million foreigners came in the first half of 2015

Barcelona (ACN).- The number of foreign tourists visiting Catalonia continues to increase year after year, and break record after record. On Wednesday, the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism released the figures for foreigners visiting Spain between January and June 2015. 7,439,211 international visitors came to Catalonia in that period; the highest number ever registered for the first half of the year and a 4.4% increase on the figures from the previous year (when 7.1 million foreigners came between January and June). In addition, Catalonia also led the destination ranking within Spain, attracting 25.5% of all international tourists visiting the country during the first six months of the year. Spain also broke its own record for international tourists during the first half of the year, with 29.2 million visitors from abroad, a 4.2% increase on 2014 figures.

In the month of June, 1.71 million foreign visitors came to Catalonia, a 1.8% increase compared to last year and representing 25.6% of all international tourists travelling to Spain in that month. This has been the best month of June ever registered in Catalonia in this field. Many of these travellers came from France and Asian countries. Despite the excellent results registered in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands welcomed a greater number of international visitors, hosting 1.73 million tourists from abroad in the month of June.

In the whole of Spain, 6.7 million foreign tourists came to the country last June, 1.4% more than did so in June 2014. The figure is also the best ever and sets a new record. The highest number of tourists came from Asian countries, France and the United States.

However, taking into account the entire January-June period, the United Kingdom was once again the main market, with 6.71 million tourists from the UK visiting Spain during that period, a 2.6% increase compared to figures from 2014. They were followed by Germans, with 4.73 million visiting Spain in the first 6 months of the year (a 1.6% increase). France was the 3^rd largest market, with 4.55 million tourists (+7.5%). The countries that had the highest increases in the number of nationals visiting Spain in this period were the United States (+15.7%), Switzerland (+9.7%), Belgium (+7.8%), France (+7.5%), Ireland (+7.4%) and Italy (+7.3%).