A detailed analysis of tourist trips to Spain in summer
Check out the main origins of foreign tourists and the provincial connections of domestic tourism in Spain during the months of July, August and September
- The Balearic Islands stand out as a destination for international tourists and in the summer months there is practically one tourist for every two residents.
- International tourism is concentrated in a few destinations and five provinces account for more than half of arrivals: Balearic Islands, Barcelona, Malaga, Girona and Alicante.
- Domestic tourism is mainly distributed between the Mediterranean coast and Madrid.
- The average stay is 6 nights and exceeds a week in the Canary Islands and Alicante.
The two maps below allow can be used to check the flow of tourists who chose Spain as their destination last summer. You can select the source or connections by entering them in the search box in the upper right corner. The maps and charts show data for July, August and September 2023 from the INE's experimental statistics on measuring tourism based on mobile telephony usage data.
International tourists arriving in Spain in summer
The map allows you to select destinations and origins. The flows to and from any international origin are shown by entering the name of an autonomous region. Enter the name of a country to see all tourist destinations in Spain during summer 2023. The zoom in/out tool provides more or less details about the routes.
The three main tourist sources (United Kingdom, France and Germany) account for almost half of the arrivals in Spain in summer. The United States was the leading non-European source of tourists (just over 1.2 million tourists and 4% of the total) and up to eight countries exceeded one million tourists in Spain during the summer of 2023. The average length stay of international tourists was close to a week.
The Balearic Islands were the main recipients of foreign tourists (almost 6.5 million and more than 20% of the total) and, among them, the British surpassed the Germans during the summer period (the tourists from both countries made up close to 30% of the total tourists in the Balearic Islands). The second most popular province was Barcelona (more than 3 million foreign tourists and over 11% of the total in Spain).
In total, eight provinces received more than one million tourists from abroad: the Balearic Islands, Barcelona, Malaga, Girona, Alicante, Madrid, Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Together they account for 70% of non-resident tourists who travelled to Spain in the summer.
Trips between provinces during summer
The map shows tourism between Spanish provinces during summer 2023. You can enter the name of the province in the search box and the tourist flows to and from that province will be displayed on the map. Likewise, by selecting each province you will be able to find out the number of tourists received from other provinces, the tourists sent to the rest of the country and the total number of tourists received (between interprovincial and international trips).
Domestic tourism mainly chooses the coast as a destination in summer. Despite this, Madrid remains the most visited province (especially in July and September). In August, Alicante and Cadiz received the most tourists, followed by Madrid, Girona and Málaga, each receiving around one million tourists.
Among the 20 most popular provinces in summer, only three inland provinces appear: Madrid (1st), Toledo (10th) and Seville (18th). And only three on the coast are not on the list: Biscay (25th), Lugo (33rd) and Gipuzkoa (34th).
Moreover, the average stay on the islands only exceeded a week, in contrast to around 5.5 nights in all other Spanish municipalities. The average length of stay in provinces on the coast was almost 5.8 nights (nearly 0.5 more than in inland provinces).
Tourist pressure in summer: Number of tourists per inhabitant in each province
The Balearic Islands stand out as the destination with the greatest tourist pressure in summer, when there is practically one tourist for every two residents in the province. National tourism and inland trips to more rural areas with smaller populations puts provinces like Ávila, Soria, Huesca, Segovia, Teruel, Cuenca and Zamora among those with the greatest tourist pressure in summer. In general, there are between 20 and 30 tourists for every 100 citizens in the months of July, August and September.
The high tourist season in Spain reaches its peak in August, which means that in almost half of the provinces there are at least 20 tourists per 100 inhabitants. The Balearic Islands, Ávila and Girona receive a tourist for every two residents. While provinces such as Soria, Huesca, Teruel, Zamora or Cuenca double their tourist pressure during the summer.
The indicator is an approximation of the pressure that the volume of tourists exerts on the population. Studies and relates overnight stays by tourists with the official population census. In this case, the total number of overnight stays by tourists received between July and September (sum of foreign tourists and tourists from other provinces) and the latest official population figures (year 2021) have been taken into account.