In 2018, 19.1 million foreign tourists came to Catalonia – 0.1% up on 2017 – generating an income of over €20,600 million, which is a 7.2% increase with respect to the previous year. The daily expenditure per person was €187, an increase of over 10%. In terms of the number of overnight stays at registered hotels and other types of accommodation, in Catalonia these totalled almost 82 million, a drop of 1.3% compared with 2017. As far as markets are concerned, it is worth noting the increase in tourists arriving from the United States, Ireland and Russia. According to the TDS utility, in the province of Girona the figures reached were 7.8 million tourists (both foreign and domestic) and over 25.5 million overnight stays at registered accommodation, despite the current political situation in Catalonia and the recovery of other destinations in the Mediterranean. On a positive note, it is worth mentioning the increase in foreign visitors’ expenditure (7.2% more than in 2017), and also the slight rise in tourist arrivals from the Eastern countries and the United States. Last year the Costa Brava cruise ports received 52,000 cruise ship passengers. The port of Palamós, with 46,000 passengers and 46 calls, positioned itself as the Costa Brava’s leading port, followed by Roses, with 5,200 passengers and 8 calls. Finally, the Girona-Costa Brava Airport confirmed the province’s general growth rate, with 2,019,874 passengers, reversing the negative trend of the last few years with a 3.77% increase in comparison with the previous year.
