Spain Received Almost 8.5 Million Passengers From International Airports in September
The Spanish authorities have revealed that the country received nearly 8.5 million passengers from international airports in September, representing 87.6 per cent of those who arrived in the same month in 2019.
Commenting on the figures, the Minister of Tourism of Spain, Reyes Maroto, said that the tourism sector continues to recover and, at the same time, pointed out that the spending of tourists is close to reaching the pre-pandemic levels.
“After an extraordinary high tourist season, today’s figures show that, despite the uncertainty of the international context, tourism continues on the path of recovery. The spending of international tourists is already close to pre-pandemic levels, and the reservation of seats to fly to our country in the coming months reinforces the good prospects for this fall,” the statement of Maroto reads.
According to the Spanish Ministry of Tourism, arrivals from the majority of countries increased. However, it was pointed out that the most significant increase was registered in arrivals from Denmark and Portugal, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Data show that compared to the pre-pandemic figures, arrivals from Denmark increased by 8.9 per cent, and arrivals from Portugal increased by 3.4 per cent in September.
Spain also registered a high number of arrivals from the United Kingdom. The Spanish airports received a total of 2,047,749 passengers from the UK in September. One in four passengers from the UK visited the Balearic Islands, and 78.5 per cent of them flew with a low-cost airline.
The number of arrivals from Germany was also high. Data provided by the Ministry show that the country’s airports received a total of 1,305,881 passengers, 15.4 per cent of whom visited the Balearic Island.
Apart from the two above-mentioned countries, a high number of arrivals were also from Italy. Spain received 739,049 Italian passengers, and this marker recovered 93 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels in September.
The Ministry further shows that the Canary Islands registered a high level of recovery in September, exceeding the pre-pandemic levels by 0.1 per cent. The Canary Islands was followed by the Balearic Island, which reached 96 per cent of the 2019 levels.
“In the group of the six communities with the most arrivals (97.1 per cent of the total) the volume of international air passengers reached 87.9 per cent of the 2019 figure. Of these six Autonomous Communities, Catalonia (87.5 per cent) and Madrid (85.3 per cent) were the ones that registered the highest year-on-year growth,” the Ministry added.
The number of people choosing Spain as their travel destination is expected to increase even more now that Spain has dropped all of its COVID measures. Previously, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that Spain no longer applies Coronavirus-related entry rules for third-country travellers. Additionally, the country no longer requires travellers to complete the health control form.
