The Canaries had 1.2 million international tourists in February, 27% more than in 2022

The Canary Islands received more than 1.2 million international tourists in the month of February, which was 27.1% more than in the same month of last year, being the favourite destination for foreigners, according to new data released today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

This means that 2.4 million foreign tourists visited the archipelago in the first two months of the year, which represents an increase of 40.9% in relation to the same period of 2022.

On a national level, the whole of Spain had 4.3 million international visitors in February, an increase of 35.9% over last year, and in fact, tourism in Spain has recovered strongly in the first two months of the year, with a total of 8.5 million people visited the country, which means an increase of 49.1% on the figure registered in the same period last year.

This increase in visitors was accompanied by an increase in spending. In the first two months of the year, the total expenditure of international tourists who visited Spain increased by 54.7% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 10.5 billion euros which is also 12.9% higher than in 2019.

The new Minister of Tourism for Spain, Héctor Gómez, said "it is proving to be an exceptional start to the year for tourism, at the gates of Easter in which we expect occupancy and spending records to be broken."

The UK continues to be the country that sends the most holidaymakers to Spain with 18.2% of the total. In February, a total of 784,496 Brits came to Spain, including the Canary Islands, representing an increase of 35.6% compared to February 2022.

France and Germany were the next countries in regard to number of visitors. France contributed 636,530 (23.8% more) and Germany 509,883 (30.9% more). Among the rest of the countries, the annual growth of tourists from the United States (93.0%), Italy (44.0%), and Switzerland (42.8%) stand out.