Spain | Foreign tourist spending rebounds between May and August 2026

Foreign tourism has once again become the main driver of tourism spending in Spain. This is reflected in BBVA Research’s¹ real-time data, based on in-person purchases made with BBVA customer cards and transactions carried out with foreign cards at the bank’s point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

Between May and August 2026, card spending by international visitors increased by 8.8% year over year, compared with 6.2% during the first four months of the year. Renewed momentum in foreign demand helped total tourism spending grow by 5.7%, six-tenths of a percentage point more than in the first four months of the year, while domestic tourism continued to lose momentum.

After a weak start to the year, spending by foreign visitors began to recover in March. Growth reached 11% year over year in May, slowed to 5% in June, and returned to around 10% in July and August. This stronger momentum may partly reflect the impact of geopolitical tensions, which could be redirecting some tourist flows toward Spain from competing destinations perceived as less safe.

As a result, over the four months analyzed, foreign tourism accounted for most of the increase in total tourism spending, and its contribution grew as the summer progressed, reaching 85% of total growth in August.

One of the most notable developments between May and August 2026 was the impact of the total solar eclipse on August 12, which highlighted the ability of an exceptional event to alter tourism flows, even if only temporarily. During the week of August 10–16, spending by foreign travelers rose by 13.8% year over year across Spain, three percentage points more than the growth recorded during the previous two weeks.

The effect was considerably greater in areas with the best visibility of the eclipse. In provinces where the eclipse reached 100% coverage, in-person purchases made with foreign cards increased by 25.7% year over year, 13.6 percentage points above the growth recorded one week earlier.

The impact was particularly pronounced in destinations where tourism typically accounts for a relatively small share of activity. Soria posted an extraordinary 220.1% year-over-year increase during the week of the eclipse, followed by La Rioja at 106.2%, Asturias at 88.7%, and Segovia at 83.1%. These unusually large increases illustrate the extent to which an event of this kind can draw visitors to areas outside Spain’s more traditional tourist destinations.

Beyond this one-off event, the data point to some geographic redistribution of tourism growth between May and August 2026. Foreign spending increased in every autonomous community, with Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia, and Aragón standing out for their stronger momentum. In terms of their contribution to the nationwide total, the acceleration was driven primarily by Catalonia, the island regions, and the Valencian Community, while Madrid showed some moderation.

Domestic tourism followed a different pattern. Spending by Spaniards outside their usual province of residence increased by 2.5% year over year between May and August 2026, nine-tenths of a percentage point less than during the previous four months. After stabilizing at around 3% between May and July, growth slowed again in August, falling below 2%.

Rising service prices and greater congestion at certain destinations may be contributing to this loss of momentum. Passenger transportation fares have once again risen sharply in 2026, while inflation in accommodations, food services, and recreational activities has also picked up. Package tours are the main exception, with prices showing some moderation.

Some inland destinations are also gaining prominence among Spanish travelers. Extremadura, Navarra, and Castilla-La Mancha recorded the strongest growth in domestic tourism spending among the autonomous communities, while the Balearic Islands was the only region to post a decline. The slowdown, however, was fairly widespread across destinations, with Catalonia and Andalusia among the regions that contributed most to the loss of momentum in the national aggregate.

The summer also highlighted the tourism sector’s vulnerability to unexpected events. Wildfires recorded in late July across the provinces of Ávila, Madrid, and Toledo reduced tourism spending in the affected areas. The impact was particularly pronounced in Ávila, where in-person purchases by BBVA customers fell by 24.3% year over year between July 23 and 29. No significant impact was detected in Madrid, while the effect in Toledo was more limited.

Even as Spaniards moderated their travel within the country, however, they once again increased their tourism spending abroad. Spending outside Spain by BBVA customers residing in the country rose by 3.1% year over year between May and August, 2.9 percentage points more than in the previous four-month period. Tourism spending by Spaniards abroad is therefore once again growing faster than spending by domestic travelers within Spain, which increased by 2.5%.

Overall, tourism spending by both domestic and international visitors maintained solid growth across nearly the entire country. Extremadura, Navarra, Asturias, and Aragón recorded the largest increases. Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary Islands, meanwhile, played a particularly important role in the acceleration compared with the first four months of the year, offsetting weaker momentum in Madrid.

Overall, the data point to a tourism sector that remains strong, although its composition is changing. International visitors are gaining importance as a driver of activity, while the domestic market is moderating. At the same time, stronger growth in several inland destinations and the extraordinary impact of the eclipse show how quickly tourism flows can shift when new reasons to travel emerge, broadening the range of destinations able to capture a share of Spain’s growing tourism spending.

Press article. Published in Invertia (El Español) on October 16, 2026.