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• Barcelona is the destination most searched for by international tourists using Google
• Spain is the second most popular destination in the world based on Google searches for flights and tourist accommodation
• In general, there is a correlation between online searches - especially for accommodation - and the destinations chosen by tourists.

Spain was the second most popular tourist destination in the world based on internet searches, according to the Destination Insights with Google tool. Spain was only behind the United States. The greatest interest was in April, with a score of 92 out of 100.

Barcelona is the highest-ranked city, in sixth place. Over the year as a whole, Madrid, Palma and Alicante are the only other cities in the TOP 50 destinations with the greatest search interest. These cities are joined by Ibiza at certain times of the year.

Comparing searches for flights and accommodation in Spain for international trips with figures for foreign tourist arrivals in 2023 reveals a significant correlation. This is particularly true when you consider that people start to organise their international trips some two or three months in advance.

The Spanish destinations with the most Google searches in 2023

The largest volumes of international searches in Google are for the cities of Barcelona and Madrid and various destinations on the islands of Mallorca and Ibiza. These figures match the three provinces welcoming the most foreign tourists in Spain: the Balearic Islands, Madrid and Barcelona.

The correlation between internet searches and arrivals of foreign tourists is very high for both the Canary Islands and much of the Mediterranean coast. This only seems to be less reflected in the arrival of tourists in the provinces of A Coruña, Bizkaia, Cantabria, Gipuzkoa and Zaragoza.

Google's enables us to differentiate between searches for flight and searches for accommodation. This seems to show an almost direct correlation between the arrival of tourists and searches for accommodation.

Maps of the provinces with the most searches reflect the grouping of the 50 destinations in Spain with the greatest search interest between 1 January and 22 December 2023.

Where do tourists search for Spain as a destination from?

The United Kingdom is the source of the greatest search interest in Spain as a tourist destination, with Germany, France and Italy also featuring prominently. In total, nine of the ten main sources of searches were among the ten countries sending the most tourists to Spain during the year (according to Frontur data to October 2023).

Italy and Germany are the search sources with the lowest tourist arrival rates.

Search patterns 

Interest in Spain as a tourist destination increased in 2023 compared to 2022, based on Google searches for flights and accommodation from outside Spain. Demand increased by between 10% and 25%, with three destinations standing out with increases of more than 50%: Donostia/San Sebastián, Santa Cruz de La Palma and Fuengirola.

The Google tool provides data from 2021. Since then, there has been a large increase in demand for Spain as a tourist destination, based on searches for flights and accommodation, although this increase slowed in 2023.

Focusing on the last year, search interest in Spain was particularly high in the first six months of the year. During the first quarter, internet searches relating to many destinations rocketed. At the national level, search interest increased by between 50% and 75% compared to the end of 2022.

Places on the Mediterranean coast stand out among the long list of Spanish destinations that Destination Insights with Google identifies as having increases of more than 75%, with the island of Mallorca being particularly prominent.

In the second quarter, the volume of worldwide search interest in Spain as a tourist destination remained stable, with general fluctuations of around 10%. However, some destinations on the Mediterranean coast stand out again. Several destinations are again among those with the largest increases, underlining their summer tourist interest.

Interest in Spain in tourist searches decreases significantly after the summer, with levels of international interest in searches similar to the United Kingdom. The drop in interest is between 10% and 25% at the national level, according to Google. Very few Spanish destinations have higher searches and interest. The Canary Islands is one leading winter destination for the main markets that send tourists to Spain. Other winter destinations included the city of Seville, which hosted the prestigious Latin Grammy music awards gala in November, and Vigo, which has established itself as a popular Christmas destination in recent years.