MADRID, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of foreign tourists visiting Spain in August fell dramatically as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the country's National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Friday.
The Frontur (tourist movement on borders) and Egatur (expenditure) surveys show that August saw a 75.9 percent year-on-year drop in the number of foreign tourists visiting Spain, from 10.1 million in 2019 to 2.44 million in 2020.
Tourist spending also declined by 79.01 percent, from 11,765 million euros (13,786 million U.S. dollars) to 2,456.83 million euros.
The August figures were further worsened by the United Kingdom government's decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on people returning from Spain at the end of July. As a result, only 256,528 UK tourists visited Spain during August, compared to 2.18 million in 2019.
Catalonia was the main tourist destination in August with 459,271 foreign visitors, of whom over half arrived from France. In fact, 863,655 of the 2.44 million tourists who visited Spain in August arrived from France.
Spain welcomed a total of 15.7 million foreign visitors in the first eight months of 2020, compared to 58.2 million in the same period of 2019, with revenues dropping by 73.8 percent, from 63,899 million euros last year to 16,747 million euros this year. (1 euro = 1.17 U.S. dollars)
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