Spain sets a new tourism record with nearly 96.8 million foreign visitors in 2025

MADRID (AP) — Spain has set a new tourism record, welcoming nearly 96.8 million foreign visitors in 2025, according to figures released Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute.

The number of international visitors witnessed an increase of 3.2%, compared to 2024, which saw 94 million tourists.

Spain is one of the world’s most popular destinations, where tourism accounts for 12.6% of the country’s gross domestic product. It has ranked third as the world’s top tourism earners, after the United Kingdom and France, on the U.N. World Tourism Barometer.

The income from foreign visitors reached 134.7 billion euros ($158.9 billion) between January and December, up 6.8% from the 126 billion euros ($129.8 billion) spent in 2024, the Ministry of Tourism said.

The increase in the number of tourists and their spending meet the objective of transforming “the tourism model into one that is more sustainable and based on prioritizing quality over quantity,” the ministry said in a statement.

Catalonia, the northeastern region where Barcelona is located, attracted around 20.1 million tourists, 0.6% more than in 2024. It was followed by the Mediterranean islands and the Canary Islands, a flagship of the sun and beach tourism for which Spain is known.

Most travelers came from the U.K. (19 million), France (12.7 million) and Germany (12 million).

It was Spain’s third record-breaking year since 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic that paralyzed international leisure travel.

As tourism rebounded globally, it put pressure on accommodation in Spain, particularly in city centers where short-term rentals have proliferated, causing friction at times with locals, many of whom feel priced out of the housing and rental market.

Last year set a new record for international tourist arrivals in the post-pandemic era: an estimated 1.52 billion international tourists were recorded worldwide, almost 60 million more than in 2024, according to the U.N. barometer.