National tourism in summer is close to the level of 2019, but spending grows by 4,000 million

Tourism, especially international tourism, has recovered its tone in 2023. However, national tourism still needs a final push to regain the number of travelers from 2019. Last summer there were almost 600,000 fewer trips by Spaniards compared to 2019. Despite this decrease of almost 1% in national tourism, which leaves Spaniards’ summer trips still below pre-pandemic levels, tourist spending has skyrocketed by 22% and exceeded 23.5 billion euros last summer, compared to 19,297 million in 2019, according to data published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Although the registration of domestic travelers has improved significantly compared to last year – by almost four million people, 6.7% more -, the increase has not been enough to exceed 2019 levels, highlights the Resident Tourism Survey of the third quarter.

Quite the opposite of what happened on the spending side. Although there have been fewer trips, Spaniards have opened their wallets more often and, where spending has grown the most, has been within national borders. In the summer holidays of 2019, Spaniards made an investment of 41 euros per day when traveling within the national territory, while in the summer of 2023 it was 52 euros, so it has increased by 26.8% between both periods. However, for those who have chosen to leave Spain, the increase has been significantly smaller. Specifically, in 2019 the average daily spending in summer was 97 euros and in 2023 it reached 104 euros, an increase of only 7.2%.

Price inflation

The items in which spending has increased the most has been in accommodation – more than 30%, from 4,875 million in 2019 to 6,385 million euros in 2023 -, in bars and restaurants – 21.5%, 4,680 million to 5,686 million- and in transportation -another 21.5% from 3,946 million to 4,793 million-.

The expansion in disbursements also coincides with the generalized inflation that has been occurring since the end of the pandemic. For example, in the month of August accommodation services were 44% more expensive compared to the reference index – the average for the year 2021 -, while in the same month of 2019 they were only 16% more expensive, according to the INE data.

Something similar to what happens with restaurant and dining services – 13% more expensive than the 2021 reference compared to almost 3% cheaper in pre-pandemic August. However, this does not happen with transport, which in August 2023 was 13% cheaper than the reference index and was 3.3% more expensive in 2019.

Six communities have not yet recovered the national market

By destination, six communities have not yet been able to recover the levels of Spanish travelers in summer. Specifically, Andalusia, Castilla y León, Castilla La Mancha, the Valencian Community, the Community of Madrid, Navarra and the Basque Country have received fewer resident travelers than in the three summer months of 2019.

In particular, Navarra remains 28% below its pre-pandemic levels with 580,512 domestic travelers between June and August 2023, compared to the 810,887 they received in those same months in 2019. The other two communities that have the furthest to travel are the Valencian Community – which remains 8.6% below with 6.8 million travelers compared to 7.5 million in 2019 – and the Community of Madrid – which has registered 8% fewer travelers residing in Spain in the same period, 2.3 million compared to 2.6 million.