Spain to receive record number of 68 mln int'l tourists

Spain is expected to reach a new record high in the number of international visitors receiving around 68 million of tourists, Spanish newspaper Expansion reported on Wednesday.

Expansion said, citing Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, that the country could receive up to 68 million international tourists, compared to 64.99 million international tourists who visited the country in 2014, also hitting a record high.

Rajoy made this statement on a break from his holidays in the western region of Galicia, where he also reminded that in the first semester of the year more than 29.2 million international tourists arrived in Spain, a 4.2 percent increase more than in the same period of a year earlier.

According to these predictions, the number of tourists would increase by 6.4 percent in 2015 and optimism showed by the hotel industry is confirmed after a 5 percent increase in the number of bookings and a 3 percent increase in average earnings.

Spain is the second country in the world in terms of tourism spending while the third one in terms of international visitors after France and the United States.

Tourism is a key sector in Spain that employs around 2 million of workers who account for 12 percent of the total. Meanwhile, the sector represents 10 percent of Spanish gross domestic product (GDP). Endit