More than 500,000 Russian tourists visited Spain for six months

The Russian tourist flow to Spain for the first six months grew by 10.7% in a year-on-year basis. At the same time, 60% of Russian arrivals are to Catalonia resorts. In June the number of Russians in Catalonia was 16% more than a year ago. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in January-June 37 million foreign tourists visited Spain (+ 1.8% against the same period of 2017). The Russian tourist flow to Spain in the first half of the year demonstrates growth - more than 506 thousand people from Russia came to the country (+ 10.7% against the same period of the last year). In June the foreign tourist flow to Spain was 8.5 million people (+ 1.3% in comparison with the same period of 2017). The number of Russian arrivals to Spain in June reached 171 thousand (+14.1). The dynamics of the Russian market was one of the best among all incoming markets. While the German market fell by 17%, the UK by 1%, Switzerland by 17%. Russia is confidently entered into the TOP 10 of key entry markets in Spain. Russian tourists support a common international trend: they mostly travel to Catalonia. According to Kristina Ionitskaya, deputy director of the representative office of the Council for Tourism of Catalonia in Russia, 290.5 thousand Russians visited Catalonia for 6 months of 2018, and spent 427.7 million Euros. Thus, Catalonia accounted for almost 60% of all Russian arrivals recorded in Spain in the first half of the year. It is noted, that this trend has been maintained since 2017. In June 117.2 thousand Russian tourists visited Catalonia (+ 15.9%). As Mrs. Ionitskaya stressed, Russians are one of the highly profitable tourists. On average, a Russian tourist spends 1,494 Euros in Catalonia during his trip, his daily spending amounted 181.8 Euros. Spain in 2018 expects the growth of the Russian market from 10 to 20%. One of the factors of growth is increasing of transportation volumes from Russian Federation. In this summer season, 145 regular flights departured monthly from Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Spanish destinations (Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Gerona, Valencia, Alicante, Tenerife, Mallorca, Malaga), which is 20% more than in the summer of the last year. In 2017, 1.1 million Russian tourists visited Spain, which is 14.1% more than in the previous year. The number of night stays of citizens of Russian Federation was 4.8 million (+ 18.3%).