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.
“If growth continues this year, we will reach 100 million foreign tourists, but we aren’t focused on that,” Hereu said, adding that last year’s figure represented a 3.5 percent increase on 2024, while revenues from tourism rose 6.8 percent to 135 billion ⁠euros ($157 billion).
Spain is the world’s 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.
According to tourism industry lobby Exceltur, the sector accounted for an estimated 13 percent of Spain’s gross ⁠domestic product in 2025.
Hereu said in the first four months of this year — including the busy Easter holiday season — 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’s 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. Some ⁠popular destinations like Ibiza have cracked down on short-term rentals.
Hereu said Spain’s 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.