CHINESE arrivals to Spain continue to surge with a 24.7 per cent rise in the first quarter of 2014, making the country second only to Japan.
The latest figures follow a 35 per cent increase last year which took the total to a record 252,099 Chinese visitors.
Spain’s ambassador to Beijing, Manuel Valencia, said that with visa applications in all three of its consulates in China rising by more than a third, double-digit growth is expected to continue over the next few years.
Apart from setting out to attract shoppers, he said the country’s cuisine is also proving to be a big draw.
Average expenditure by the Chinese rose 14 per cent to over 2,000 euros (US$2,724) last year, almost double the budget among European visitors.
Spain is also pinning its hopes on peak-hour TV series, Divas hit the road, that has proved popular with Chinese audiences and is based on a group of Chinese celebrity tourists, he said.
However, the destination still lags behind major European rivals Italy, France and the UK in overall tourism numbers because of the low number of direct flights, Valencia added.
Last year’s figures show Japan remained top of the Asian tourist table to Spain, but with only four per cent growth to 374,175 arrivals. South Korea was in third place, up 21 per cent to 110,263. This was followed by India, up 21 per cent to 73,493; Indonesia, up 39 per cent to 57,288; and the Philippines, up 1.8 per cent to 48,250.
