In the first five months of 2023, Spain received a total of 34 million arrivals, 28.8% more than in the same period of 2022.
Spain received more than 8.8 million international air passengers in May 2023, 13.9% more than in the same month of last year, according to data released today by Turespaña. In the first five months of the year, Spain received 34 million passengers, 28.8% more than in the same period of 2022.
For the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, “these visitor figures confirm the excellent performance of tourism in the first half of this year, both in terms of the number of tourists and the improvement in the quality and services Spain offers to travellers. Our forecast for the high season is that we will match and even surpass pre-pandemic figures in terms of tourists, overnight stays and spending at the destination”.
The month of May saw an increase in passengers to Spain, departing from all major countries. 55.7% of the total number of passengers came from the EU, an increase of 12.6%, while the flow from the rest of the world, which accounted for the remaining 44.3%, grew by 15.5%.
In terms of countries, and compared to the figures for May 2022, the markets with the highest growth are Poland, with 36.4% more, followed by Portugal and Italy, with 24.1% and 22.6% more, respectively.
In terms of volume, the UK was the leading issuer of passengers in May (2,167,830), an increase of 9.5% YoY. The UK accounted for 24.6% of the total share of arrivals. The arrival of British passengers had an impact on all the autonomous communities, but especially the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, which was the destination of 25.2% and 21.2% of these passengers, respectively. 80.4% of British passengers travelled on a low-cost carrier (LCC), with the UK the leader in arrivals on these airlines, accounting for 32.5% of the total. The total number of travellers from this country so far this year amounts to 7,439,633, 27.2% more than in the first five months of 2022.
After the UK, Germany is still the second country of origin of international passengers. Passenger arrivals from Germany (14.8% of the total) increased by 7.5% in May, especially benefiting the Balearic Islands (45.2% of passengers). Slightly less than half of German passengers (45.2% of the total) travelled on traditional airlines, with Germany the leading market in terms of arrivals on these airlines (17.1% of the total).
9% of the passenger flow received in May came from Italy, the third country of origin, representing a growth of 22.6% YoY, which particularly benefited Catalonia (29.9% of these passengers) and Madrid (25.8%). Italy is the third largest issuing country, with a predominance of LCC passengers (79% of the total) over those travelling on traditional airlines.
France accounted for 7.9% of the total number of passengers in May, showing a growth of 9.8%, which mainly favoured Madrid and Catalonia. In the case of international passengers from the Netherlands, there was an increase of 1.5% in May, with the main destinations being Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.
Valencia, the fastest growing region
Madrid was the community with the highest number of arrivals in May (21.2% of the total), followed by the Balearic Islands (20.6%) and Catalonia (20.2%). Among the top six, the Community of Valencia recorded the highest year-on-year growth (19%), followed by Madrid (16.7%) and Catalonia (15.8%). Overall growth in the six communities with the highest number of arrivals (the six together account for 96.8% of the total) was 13.5%.
In terms of airports, Valencia airport experienced the highest YoY growth (23% compared to May 2022), followed by Barcelona (18.4%) and Alicante (with a growth of 17.2% YoY). In terms of total volume, Barajas accounted for 1,872,143 international passengers in May, compared to 1,640,439 for Barcelona airport; in third place that month was Palma de Mallorca airport, with 1,376,149 international passengers.
Of the total number of passengers arriving in Spain by air in May, 60.9% of them chose LCC to travel with, an increase of 13.9% compared to May 2022, while the figure for those travelling on traditional airlines, the remaining 39.1%, increased by 13.8%.
Note: Although international air passengers are not all international tourists because they also include residents in Spain returning from an international airport, they are tourists in the vast majority of cases.
