Reports from the Tourism Expenditure Survey (Egatur) where published on Monday and have shed some light on Spain’s foreign tourists and their benefit to the country. In 2011, international tourists visiting Spain spent 52,796 million Euros, which was an average expenditure of 934 Euros per tourist, up by 0.2% than the same period in 2010 and an increase in daily spending by 4.6% to 102 Euros.

Other European countries that showed an increase in total tourist spending were the UK and Germany, both up by 2.1% as well as Scandinavia (10.1%) and France (12.8%). .

As far as regions go in Spain, Catalonia stood out in the first position by contributing to 21.4% of the total tourist expenditure and a growth of 7.4%. During December 2011 the total international tourist spending expenditure increased by 5.2% to 2,811 million Euros, while in January 2012 the average daily expenditure increased by 17.8% to 104 Euros.

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Reports from El Mundo, the Spanish newspaper, have said that the growth in December 2011 was lead by nationalities from Japan, United Kingdom, the Nordic countries and Switzerland.

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With tourism still playing a major part in the economic stability of Spain, the fact remains that top world destinations such as Barcelona offer foreign tourists the opportunity to escape from Northern Europe and bleaker climates to take advantage of the culture and way of life that is on display in Spain, especially Catalonia. While Spain wrestles with its debt crisis, international tourist are increasingly flocking to this Mediterranean oasis, giving light at the end of the tunnel that the worst might be behind us.

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