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Foreign visitors. Tourists and day-trippers

Foreign visitors. Tourists and Day-trippers Catalonia Value
Total Tourists Day-trippers
2023 26,093.6 18,182.6 7,911.0
2022 22,280.2 14,852.0 7,428.2
2021 10,989.6 5,787.8 5,202.0
2020 7,999.1 3,870.3 4,128.9
2019 27,910.4 19,375.2 8,535.3
2018 27,495.7 19,196.3 8,299.3
2017 26,354.9 19,118.4 7,236.5
2016 27,802.2 18,139.2 9,663.0
Units: Thousands.
Source: Idescat, based on data of the INE's Tourist Movement on Borders Survey and Tourist Expenditure Survey.
Notes:
It considers information of trips of foreign visitors whose main destination is Catalonia.
Rates of variation for 2016 are chained rates provided by the INE.
Between 14 March and 21 June 2020, it is in force the Royal Decree 463/2020, of 14 March, which declares the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by Covid-19.
Foreign visitors. Tourists and Day-trippers Spain Value
Total Tourists Day-trippers
2023 125,750.4 85,169.0 40,581.4
2022 104,968.1 71,659.3 33,308.8
2021 51,631.4 31,180.8 20,450.6
2020 36,410.0 18,933.1 17,476.9
2019 126,170.1 83,509.2 42,660.9
2018 124,455.7 82,808.4 41,647.3
2017 121,717.3 81,868.5 39,848.8
2016 115,561.1 75,315.0 40,246.1
Units: Thousands.
Source: INE. Tourist Movement on Borders Survey.
Note: Between 14 March and 21 June 2020, it is in force the Royal Decree 463/2020, of 14 March, which declares the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by Covid-19.

Last update: March 13, 2024.

Methodological note

Foreign Tourism in Catalonia involves data processed by Idescat based on the Survey of Tourist Movement on Borders (Frontur) and Survey of Tourist Expenditure (Egatur) from the INE.

Its goal is to measure, on a monthly basis, the number of visitors living abroad, in accordance with access routes and type of visitor, and reveal the main attributes of said trips.

This statistic encompasses the trips taken by international tourists and day-trippers according to the country where they normally reside (that is, the trips taken by travellers whose usual country of residence is outside Spain, regardless of their nationality).

Tourists are those people who travel to a main destination outside their usual environment, involving at least one overnight stay, for a duration of less than one year and when the main reason for the visit (including business, leisure and other personal reasons) is not connected with a job in a company established in the location visited.

Day-trippers are those people who travel to a main destination outside their usual environment, involving no overnight stay. Said visits must meet the following characteristics:

  • The point of departure must be the person's usual environment.
  • The visit cannot be part of the person's daily routine.
  • It must have a duration of at least three hours.
  • Its frequency must be less than once per week.

Up until the third quarter of 2015, the Spanish Institute of Tourism was in charge of producing the Survey of Tourist Movement on Borders (Frontur) and the Survey of Tourist Expenditure (Egatur). Starting in the last quarter of 2015, the body in charge of said operations is the INE. Said shift of responsibilities also entailed a change in the design and methodology of the surveys, which means the data will not be entirely comparable to previous series.

Said methodology is expanded in Foreign Tourism.

See also