MADRID
\nSpain expects to host more foreign visitors, and for them to spend more in total, in 2026 after the country welcomed a record 97 million tourists last year, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu told reporters on Thursday.
\n\u201cIf growth continues this year, we will reach 100 million foreign tourists, but we aren\u2019t focused on that,\u201d Hereu said, adding that last year\u2019s figure represented a 3.5 percent increase on 2024, while revenues from tourism rose 6.8 percent to 135 billion euros ($157 billion).
\nSpain is the world\u2019s second most visited country after France, and tourism is a major source of revenue for the economy, which has by far outgrown its European peers in the past two years.
\nAccording to tourism industry lobby Exceltur, the sector accounted for an estimated 13 percent of Spain\u2019s gross domestic product in 2025.
\nHereu said in the first four months of this year \u2014 including the busy Easter holiday season \u2014 authorities were forecasting a 3.7 percent rise in visitors from abroad to 26 million people, who they expect will spend 35 billion euros, up 2.5 percent from the same period last year. The Mediterranean country\u2019s tourism boom, while boosting its economy, has led to tension in many visitor hotspots due to the indirect effect on housing prices, congestion and natural resource degradation problems.<\/p>\n
Some popular destinations like Ibiza have cracked down on short-term rentals.
\nHereu said Spain\u2019s model was moving away from seasonality, as data showed that tourist spending had grown by 53 percent in the low and mid-seasons compared with pre-pandemic year 2019, and by 34 percent in the high season. Two-thirds of tourists who visited Spain in 2025 intend to return as they see it as a safe place, the minister said, adding that there was no sign of global geopolitical issues affecting flight availability or booking trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADRID Spain expects to host more foreign visitors, and for them to spend more in total, in 2026 after the country welcomed a record 97 million tourists last year, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu told reporters on Thursday. \u201cIf growth continues this year, we will reach 100 million foreign tourists, but we aren\u2019t focused on that,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-525875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n