Spain

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) was suspended on 16 March 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic until the start of 2021. The ONS have made every effort to produce high-quality estimates for the periods when IPS data is not being collected but have not been able to produce a full set of results. See the 2020 inbound page for more information.
The 2021 data is ‘incomplete’ as Eurotunnel data was unavailable for Q1 to Q3 but modelled for Q4. In addition, interviewing at Dover restarted from Q3 2021 and pseudo records for the Irish land border were also removed in 2021. More info can be found on the 2021 inbound page.
For 2022, Eurotunnel data was modelled for the first half of the year and the latest data can be found on the monthly and quarterly pages. Interviewing at Eurostar was not affected by Covid-19 restrictions in 2021 or the first half of 2022. The ONS restarted IPS interviews at all ports from July 2022.
Due to the above, the latest full year IPS data below is from 2019.
Visitor characteristics
- Business visitors are more than three times more likely to be male than female
- 48% of spending came from holiday visits, 28% from visits to friends and/or relatives and 14% from business in 2019
- More than three-in-five of holiday visitors are making a repeat visit to Britain (excluding British expats)
- 98% of visitors from Spain are either ‘likely’ or ‘extremely likely’ to recommend Britain for a holiday or short-break
Popular activities
Global context
Measure | 2019 |
---|---|
International tourism expenditure (US$bn) | 27.8 |
Global rank for international tourism expenditure | 11 |
Number of outbound visits (m) | 29.2 |
Most visited destination | France |
Key demographic and economic data
Measure | 2022 |
---|---|
Population (m) | 47.6 |
GDP per capita PPP (US$) | 43,777 |
Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%) | 1.2 |
Annual GDP growth (%) | 4.3 |