According to the Survey of Tourist Movements in Frontera (Frontur) released by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Spain received in the first three months of the year 9.18 million international tourists, representing a 2.6% increase over the same period in 2011.

The United Kingdom, Germany and France were the countries from where most tourists arrived during the month of March, which saw 3.6 million visitors, an increase of 5% than the same month of 2011. Italy was one of the fastest growing markets, but it was the number of British travelers that saw the biggest increase of 3.5%, with the Germans up by 2.7% and the French by 1.4%.
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 For the first quarter of the year, the Canary Islands have remained stable with only a slight decrease of 0.3% in March, since the beginning of the year. The islands got the highest percentage of foreign visitors, 31.2% of total (2.8 million tourists). Catalonia is in second place for the second consecutive month, with 96,000 more tourists and an increase of 9.9% over the same month last year.

The third most visited area of Spain was Andalusia, with 9.6%, which was a decline in tourists because of the lower arrivals of the French and Germans. In fourth place was Valencia which has experienced two straight months of declines.

Tourists who arrived via the airport rose by 5.3% from the previous month while visitors who arrived by car decreased by 7%. On the accommodation side of things, hotels saw an increase of occupancy by 9.7%, while the non-hotel entities such as camp sites, etc fell by 11.2%. The package tour continued with the same growth as in the previous months, in March it rose by 15.1%.

With the current statistics presented for the first quarter of 2012, Spain is on course to receive 25 million tourists in the first half of the year, with forecast by UNWTO that Spain will exceed 1,000 million tourists, for the first time, in 2012.

With tourism as the main champion of Spain, there are many positive aspects from the recent numbers. The fact that 2012 has started on a positive note, bodes well for the coming months. With the Canary Islands and Catalonia spear heading the economic boast that Spain needs, there has never been a better time to experience the charms that Spain holds, especially in Barcelona.

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