Spain received five million international passengers through its airports in September, according to data from Turespaña.
This amount represents more than half of the tourist arrivals in September 2019, when 9.7 million foreign air travelers visited the country, and an increase of 437% compared to the same month in 2020, the government highlighted in a press release.
So far this year (January-September), the number of arrivals has reached 20.7 million passengers, 12.7% more than in the same period of 2020.
For the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, these data reflect that Spain is perceived abroad as a "safe destination" and that "we are going in the right direction and that the recovery of the Spanish tourism sector is solid."
The increase in international passengers has been registered in all the main countries of origin, with Germany (18.5% and 934,338 people) as the first market registering an increase of 688% year-on-year. The Germans traveled mainly to the Balearic and Canary Islands.
British, French tourists
Passenger arrivals from British airports (17.3%) remain in second position with an increase of 387% compared to the same month in 2020, reaching 877,108 people.
Italy was the third issuing country of international passengers, with 428,661 passengers whose priority destinations were Catalonia and Madrid.
It was followed by France (394,856) and the Netherlands (379,636), which is the country that shows a higher degree of recovery (85%) compared to the data prior to the pandemic, September 2019.
The main destinations
The Balearic Islands were the main Spanish destination region in September (23.2% and 1,176,055 passengers).
It is followed by the Madrid region (19% and 959,706 passengers), Catalonia (18% and 908,572), Andalusia (13.6% and 689,937), the Canary Islands (12.1% and 613,951) and the Valencian Community (11.8% and 597,870).
