The Minister for Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda visited the Mazagón Parador Hotel on Friday, which is reopening its doors following the repair of the installations damaged during a fire.
The Minister for Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda, Álvaro Nadal, said that, in terms of tourism, Spain is expecting a very good summer with an increase of 8.9% in the number of overseas visitors between May and August. This means that almost 38 million tourists will visit Spain over the four-month period, of which 21.5 million will do so in July and August.
Álvaro Nadal made these statements following a visit to the Mazagón Parador Hotel in Huelva, which is re-opening its doors on Friday after repairing the installations damaged in a fire that started in Moguer on Saturday and destroyed parts of the pool area, the outside restaurant and beach accesses.
The minister offered his thanks to employees at the Parador Hotel, who worked hard day and night to return the situation to normal by cleaning and repairing the damage. Álvaro Nadal highlighted their professional work and encouraged tourists to visit the area.
Álvaro Nadal recalled that Spain closed the first five months of 2017 with close on 28 million inbound tourists according to the Frontur – Inbound Tourism Survey conducted by the Spanish National Statistics Institute and published today. This figure represents an increase of 11.6% on the same period of 2016 and consolidates the path of growth recorded in the year to date for inbound tourists to Spain.
Among the main emitting markets, the United Kingdom stands out with the arrival of over 6.4 million tourists (up 10.9%). This is followed by Germany, with more than four million tourists (up 7.6%), and France, with close on 3.9 million tourists (up 5%).
Catalonia held a leading position in terms of inbound tourists with more than 6.6 million arrivals in these five months (up 10.5%), followed by the Canary Islands, with over 5.9 million inbound tourists (up 9.6%) and Andalusia, with over four million tourists (also up by 9.6%).
As regards the month of May 2017, Spain received 7.9 million inbound tourists, up 11.7% on the same month of 2016. The United Kingdom was the main emitting market, with 2,044,771 tourists, accounting for 25.7% of the total and a 14% increase on May last year.
