International Tourism Statistics for Andalucia

International Tourist Statistics for Andalucia

by Chris Chaplow

2025 figures - international records broken again, brits exceed pre-covid

Official data from INE (National Statistics Institute, (see table below) 2025 recorded 14.5 million international arrivals to Andalucia, 22% more than 2019 benchmark year and 6% more than 2024. British arrivals 3.1 million to Andalucia, 3% more than the 2019 benchmark year.

2025 was the first year that the number of British tourists exceeds the 2019 pre-Covid stats. It has taken six years to recover. Other international tourists had already exceeded pre-Covid levels by 2023.

2024 figures - the recovery continues

According to official data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) (see the table below), 13.6 million international tourists arrived in Andalusia in 2024, which is 13% more than in the benchmark year of 2019 and 12% more than in 2023. British tourists have been slower to recover from the years of the pandemic, with 2.8 million arrivals in Andalusia, which is 93% of the figure for the benchmark year of 2019. September 2024 saw a peak and was the first full 'recovery month' since the pandemic, reaching 106% of arrivals in September 2019. However, arrivals fell back to 93% in October and to 88% in December.

2023 figures - the recovery

For 2023 recorded 12.2 million international arrivals to Andalucia, a record year, just overtaking the 12.02 million in 2019. This means that international tourism numbers in Andalucia returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, which is a hugely significant moment for the tourism industry here. 

Figures should only be compared to those from 2019 (see below), the last "normal" year, to indicate the recovery of tourism after the pandemic. International tourists to Andalucia are defined as those making an overnight stay, whose country of residence is not Spain, and whose main destination in Spain is to Andalucia.

However international arrivals in 2023 were not the same for all countries. The UK, which is the biggest country for tourist arrivals here in Andalucia, still has a way to go to recover pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, UK arrivals were 2.65 million, ahead of 2022's 2.40 million but only 88 % of  2019 pre-pandemic year of 3.01 million tourists.

2020 to 2022: from pre-pandemic record levels to post-pandemic recovery

In 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, Andalucia received 10.8 million international tourists, which was the highest ever recorded, and greeted with delight by the regional government. This figure was 3.4% up on 2018, and in line with consistent growth from 2010 to 2019.

In 2020, the first year of the Covid pandemic, Andalucia received only 2.7 million international tourists. January and February were up about 3% on 2019, but after mid-March when the Coronavirus pandemic.struck, borders were closed until mid-July, when restrictions and/or tests made it complicated for international tourists to visit.

• Airport Statistics for Andalucia

In 2021 the recovery started - Andalucia received 4.2 million international tourists, about a third of pre-pandemic levels. In the second half of the year, as restrictions eased international tourist numbers increased, with October / November reaching about 75% of 2019 levels (see monthly table, below). However the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus at the end of the year caused a reduction in reservations for the 2022 holiday season, which usually see a boost in January.

The 2021 national tourist arrivals (including Andalucian tourists) increased substantially in 2021, with close to 20 million tourists helping the economy of the tourism, and especially the hotel, sector. Of the 20 million, 77% were national, and about half of these were Andalucian residents travelling within Andalucia, possibly helped by the hotel discount voucher offered by the regional government. This supported the local destinations' economies, but not the Andalucian tourism economy as a whole.

In 2022 Andalucia received 10 million international tourists. This is equivalent to 83% of the 2019 peak, and similar to the 2015/6 figures. 

These figures would place Andalucia, if it were a country, about 25th in a world league of foreign tourist arrivals.

Internationally 2022 started slowly, since the Covid wave over New Year delayed summer reservations. January 2022, for example, saw 56% international arrivals compared to 2019 levels, but UK arrivals were only back to 39%.

In the first half of 2022, international tourists were at 77% of 2019 levels. Many reports optimistically predicted that 2022 would be a bumper summer for travel to Spain, and indeed the second half of the year recorded a more impressive 89%. 

International Tourists in Andalucia - by year

In the table we observe the increase in international (ie non Spanish) tourist arrivals to Andalucia. A general increase from 2000 to 2007, then the fall to 2010, followed by the rise back to 2019, then the pandemic in 2020/1 and the recovery in 2022 and 2023.

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica. Movimentos turisticas en frontera. Frontur

The Encuesta de Coyuntura Turística de Andalucía (ECTA), conducted by the Instituto de Estadística y Cartografía de Andalucía, reports that 36.2 million tourists visited Andalucia in 2024. Of these, 33% (12 million) were Andalucian residents visiting different parts of Andalucia, 31% (12 million) were from other parts of Spain, 27% (10 million) were from the EU (including the UK, but excluding Spain), and 10% (3.6 million) were from the rest of the world. 

The figure of 36.2 million tourists in Andalucia is often misreported in the media as implying that 36 million tourists entered Andalucia in the record year. More accurately, 24 million tourists entered Andalucia with a corresponding economic benefit to Andalucia, and 12 million stayed overnight in a different part of Andalucia from their place of residence.

International Tourists to Andalucia - by month