Spain records 97.7% drop in tourism amid coronavirus pandemic

Spain received 97.7 per cent fewer tourists in June as compared to the previous year, indicating a major plunge in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the latest data released by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, 204,926 people visited the European tourism hub in June 2020.

Not only did the number drop but also the amount of money spent declined considerably. According to the data, the total money spends by international tourists in June decreased by 98.6 per cent as compared to June 2019. The amount spent per tourist also dropped by 40.8 per cent and average duration on trips fell from 6.7 days to 5.7 days.

Four-star hotels preferred 

Spain whose GDP is largely dependent on revenues from the tourism sector was hit hard by the lockdown. A total of 920,778 people stayed in hotels and other establishments with people preferring four stars hotels over all others. In addendum, the data also revealed that with a 10 per cent decline in tourism, a total of 1,820,455 people visited the country for overnight stays.

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Another report revealed that the Spanish economy contracted 18.5% in the second quarter, the sharpest slump since the country's national statistics agency began collecting data. Spain which went into a more than three-month lockdown in mid-March ended the shutdown on 21 June. According to an official record, the economic downturn wiped out more than 1 million jobs in Spain in the second quarter of this year.

However, an optimistic economy professor Juan Carlos Martinez Lázaro reportedly said that although Spain will see a bounceback in the third and fourth quarters of 2020, it will take about two years for the country's economy to return to its pre-coronavirus shape.

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