Foreign tourists (annual series 2001-2015). Reason and characteristics of the trip

Statistics are drawn up on trips made by foreign tourists in order to quantify and describe flows of visitors to Catalonia.

Until the third quarter of 2015 data are obtained from the Survey of Tourism Movements at Borders (Frontur) produced by the Institute of Tourism Statistics (ITS). From the fourth quarter of 2015 on, the INE carries out the Frontur survey.

It provides annual information of the tourists for country of origin, for the trips of the main destination and secondary destination to Catalonia. Main destination is the most significant place visited during the trip with the highest number of overnight stays. Moreover, the information referring to tourists is classified by different variables: accommodation, reason for the trip, country of residence and type of transport.

Frontur is a continuous monthly survey which uses a mixed data gathering system. It uses administrative registers for all types of transport used, takes a manual count at border points and carries out sample-based surveys at entry and exit points in Spain. This statistical operation generates information about the number of travellers and the number of overnight stays.

Tourist means a traveller who makes an overnight stay, while tripper means a traveller who does not make an overnight stay. The sum of tourists and trippers (including through travellers) is the total number of visitors.

Overnight stay is a night spent outside the habitual residence. The arrival of tourists gather the number of people that do one or more overnight stays in a row in the same accommodation.

In March 2009 Idescat began to use a new estimate methodology. Data for 2006, 2007 and 2008 have been revised as the Frontur data include methodological changes. These changes enhance the estimates of data for travellers who come to Spain through ports and by road (coaches). All other access routes (airport, train and light vehicles on roads) are not affected by the changes.

From March 2011, the table of the reasons of the trip, according to IET, can be disaggregated in leisure/holidays, professional reasons, personal (familiar, health, purchases) and others.

In January 2014 the IET incorporated cruise travellers into the Frontur statistics and expanded the information on train travellers. The coverage of travellers who come to Catalonia was thereby increased.

As for cruises, foreign cruise travellers in transit (in other words, those who, once they reach port, continue on their cruise) are regarded as international travellers. As for trains, the railway flows with France have been redesigned, giving more weight to high-speed train journeys and removing routes which are no longer in operation.

The data for Catalonia is always provisional. The data for Spain is definitive, except the last year.