The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has forecasted that Spain received more visitors than the US in 2017, placing it in second place after France.
Spain received 82 million visitors in 2017 compared to 89 million tourists which were received by France during the same period.
Spain also placed second for the share of global tourism spending after the US whose total spend in 2017 was around € 185 billion. Spain earned € 60 million in 2017 which is a year on year increase of more than 10%. Thailand and France followed Spain with spending in both countries exceeding € 40 billion. France enjoyed € 41.3 billion whilst Thailand enjoyed € 48.6 billion.
Álvaro Nadal, Spain’s Minister for Tourism, has said that his main objective is now is for Spain to “beat France”. The WTO expects that world tourism will grow by 4 to 5% in 2018, following an increase of 7% in 2017.
The growth in global tourism was the most significant seen in the last seven years with more than 1.3 million tourists.
