Panic in Spain as country 'abandoned' by French and German tourists

As spending by French, German and US visitors in Spain weakend in 2025, more Brits visited Spain this year despite the overall slowdown. This is because tourism industry operators have a good relationship with the UK, according to the industry group Exceltur. Overall, the tourism sector's contribution to this year's economic growth in Spain will be less than expected.

Exceltur now projects that tourism-related activity in the world's second most-visited country will increase by 2.8% in 2025, a downgrade from its 3.3% forecast in July and well below last year's 5.5% growth. However, this doesn't apply to Brits. Between January and August, 13 million Britons traveled to Spain, marking a 4.3% increase compared with the same period last year. They remain the largest nationality group, accounting for 26.5% of all visitors.

"The strength and networks of the tour operators is super important. I have seen so many advertisements saying buy now, pay later. So when they are financing your holiday for free, that is very important," Javier Pascuet, a consultant specialising in sustainable tourism, told The i Paper. He claimed that Brits keep coming to Spain because they see it as a safe destination with guaranteed sunshine. He added this was helped by the fact that the pound has maintained its strength against the euro.

He said: "Spain is very familiar to people. Most people want to find a safe and close destination. The pound is holding on, the dollar is not. People know what they are getting, which is fairly good with a reasonable price.

"Spain is so easy and just three clicks away. And you know, Jet2 and they speak in English. Some people are coming for cultural or gastronomic or sport or something, but mainstream tourism is still so strong."

Oscar Perelli, vice-president of Exceltur, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the tourism sector is no longer expected to outpace Spain's overall economic growth, projected at 2.6%.

The total number of international visitors may fall short of the 100 million forecast earlier this year by the World Travel and Tourism Council. Last year, Spain welcomed a record 94 million tourists, and by August 2025, 66.8 million had arrived, representing a 3.9 per cent increase on the same period in 2024.