MADRID, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Spain suffered a fall of 77.3 percent in the number of foreign tourists visiting the country in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data published by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE) on Wednesday.
The INE study on tourist movement at the borders showed that Spain welcomed 18.9 million foreign tourists in 2020, down from the record of 83.5 million in 2019.
This is the first time the number of foreign visitors has fallen below the 20 million mark since 1969, when Spain was just starting out as a tourist destination.
The reduction in tourist numbers was also matched by a similar drop in income from tourism, which fell 78.5 percent from 91.9 billion euros (110.46 billion U.S. dollars) to 19.74 billion euros.
The falls are especially significant given that income from tourism represents around 11 percent of Spain's GDP and provides 12 percent of the country's jobs.
On Jan. 29, the INE reported that Spain's GDP had fallen by 11 percent in 2020, while 622,600 jobs were destroyed during the year, according to the Economically Active Population Survey (EPA) published a day earlier.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) published on Jan. 28 its data for 2020, stating that international tourist numbers dropped 74 percent globally as a result of the pandemic last year.
The first two and a half months of 2020 actually saw an increase in the number of international visitors to Spain, but the arrival of the pandemic and a subsequent three-month lockdown had led to its borders being closed with zero tourist arrivals.
Although there was a slight recovery in the summer, the arrival of the "second wave" of the pandemic from September onwards had led to a fall of around 90 percent in visitor numbers. (1 euro = 1.20 U.S. dollars) Enditem
