The number of foreign tourists who visited Spain in April jumped nearly tenfold from the same month last year, to 6.1 million, close to 7.1 million in April 2019, official statistics showed Wednesday.
Data showed that foreign tourists spent 6.9 billion euros ($7.40 billion) in Spain in April, up from 668 million euros in the same month last year.
Spain has eased covid-19 restrictions on the entry of unvaccinated hiv-positive travellers from outside the European Union, in a move that boosts tourism before the start of the summer season.
Spain was the second most visited country before the Covid-19 pandemic, with some 83.5 million tourists visiting it in 2019. However, international travel restrictions due to the pandemic severely affected Spain's tourism sector in 2020, receiving only about 19 million tourists.
The number of tourists in Spain rose again in 2021 to 31.1 million, but was below government expectations of 45 million tourists.