According to data released by Turespaña, more than 6.5 million international air passengers arrived in Spain in March, 30% more than in the same month last year. This month of March has also been the second with the most international passengers since the year 2000.
For the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, these data show that “Spanish tourism, in the first quarter of the year, is on track to break all records after the pandemic. Spain can boast of having a robust and that is offering our country stability, security and future”.
In addition, he stressed that tourism is being “a source of wealth and at the same time one of our best letters of introduction abroad. Our objective as a Government is to continue working to improve the quality of our tourism and remain at the forefront of the sector”.
Portugal and the USA, the ones that grow the most
In the month of March, passengers to Spain increased from all the main countries. 55.6% of all passengers came from the European Union, experiencing a rise of 25.8%, while the flow from the rest of the world, which accounted for the remaining 44.4%, grew by 35.7%.
In terms of countries, and comparing with the figures for 2022, the markets that registered the highest growth are Portugal, with 63.2% more, followed by the United States and Ireland, with 42.9% and 38.9%, respectively.
In volume, the United Kingdom was the first issuer of passengers in March (1,426,007), and an annual growth of 33.3%. The United Kingdom represents 21.9% of the total share of arrivals. The arrival of British passengers (3.4 million in the total so far this year) has affected all the autonomous communities, but especially in the Canary Islands, which was the destination of 35.7% of its passengers.
After the United Kingdom, Germany remains the second country of origin for international passengers. 873,738 passengers (13.4% of the quota) arrived from Germany in this month of March, with an increase of 19%, which has mainly benefited the Canary Islands (31% of the total passengers went to that community).
From Italy, the third issuing country, came 9.1% of the flow of passengers received in March (592,207 passengers in total), with an interannual growth of 31.4%, which particularly benefited Catalonia (32.1% of passengers) and Madrid (32.0%).
For its part, France issued 7.4% of all passengers in March, showing growth of 19.0%, which mainly favoured Madrid and Catalonia. In the case of the Netherlands, international passengers experienced an increase of 10.2% in March, with the Valencian Community, Catalonia and Andalusia as the main destinations.
Catalonia, the fastest growing
Madrid was the community with the most arrivals in March (27.2% of the total), followed by Catalonia (20.8%) and the Canary Islands (20.2%). Among the six main ones, Catalonia was the one that registered the highest year-on-year growth (42.6%), followed by Madrid (36.7%) and Valencia (28.2%). The growth in the group of the six communities with the most arrivals (between the six add up to a share of 97% of the total) was 29.4%.
As for airports, Barcelona has experienced the most year-on-year growth (43% compared to March 2022), followed by Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (with growth of 36.7%). In total volume, Barajas added 1,770,313 international passengers in March, compared to 1,332,585 from Barcelona airport; in third place is Malaga, with 596,951 international passengers in March.
Of the total number of passengers arriving in Spain by air in March, 58.1% of them chose low-cost companies (CBC) to travel, with an increase of 31.0%, while those who travelled in traditional companies, the remaining 41.9% increased by 28.6%. Although international air passengers are not equivalent to international tourists because they also include residents of Spain who return from an international airport, the vast majority do correspond to tourists.
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