The Minister of Tourism points out that “we have experienced a very interesting growth in international tourists and a change in trend in the markets that should mark our promotion strategies.”
The French market has surpassed tourists from the United Kingdom, especially in the provinces of Castellón and Valencia
The Minister of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Nuria Montes, has pointed out that “the final data for 2023 confirms that we have experienced a very interesting growth in international tourists”, while pointing out that “this type of analysis serves us well. to better guide our promotional strategies and be more effective when carrying out actions in different potential markets.”
In fact, as he has highlighted "we are seeing a notable increase in the arrival of tourists from the Netherlands or the Nordic countries, even above some more traditional ones such as Italy, while France has surpassed the United Kingdom as the main source market", some data that "is essential when making decisions and being more efficient with the resources we allocate to each of them, as well as with the products we reinforce, such as gastronomy."
In this sense, he highlighted that the Valencian Community received in 2023, as indicated in the report prepared by Turisme Comunitat Valenciana through data from the Frontur-Egatur surveys, a total of 10,474,167 international tourists, almost 20%. of which come from France, a market that has surpassed the British market in the last year. In fact, in 2022 a total of 8,616,445 tourists were received, mostly from the United Kingdom, a market that has now given way to the French as the majority.
Similarly, the daily spending of those who visited us last year also increased compared to 2022, going from spending 118.6 euros on average per day to 126.8 euros in 2023. The main reason for the trip continues to be leisure and vacations, with an average stay of 9.4 days and with trips oriented toward sun and beach products 46.4% of the time. However, an increase in interest in gastronomic activities has been detected, which now reaches 45.4%.
The majority of international tourists choose to stay in a hotel during their vacation (40.8%), while only 16.4% choose to rent a tourist home. 77.1% of them arrive through one of the three airports that the Valencian Community has, while 21.6% arrive by road.
On the other hand, the report indicates that the daily spending of these international tourists increases significantly when their stay is for work or business, reaching 211 euros per day. Also depending on the product you choose for your leisure time, since a tourist who engages in nature activities spends about 96 euros a day, compared to the 205 euros spent by someone motivated by gastronomic tourism.
More than half of the foreign visitors are women (59.1%), between 25 and 44 years old (39.2%), followed closely by the range between 45 and 64 years old (38%). In any case, this data also depends on the destination, since age increases in destinations such as Alicante or Castellón, while in Benidorm or the city of Valencia, younger visitors predominate. Most of them are people with higher education and are active.
If we do an analysis by province, we can see that the British market continues to be the main one in destinations such as the province of Alicante or the city of Benidorm, in which the British account for 77.7% of its demand. However, the French mainly opt for the province of Castellón, followed by the Belgian market, and the province of Valencia, where the Italians follow.