Spain loses about one million UK visitors on crisis and weak currency

One million Britons have abandoned Spain's bars and beaches in the last year after the pound dived against the euro and the financial crisis took hold, according to Spain's main tourism trade body.

Spain, the world's second biggest tourist destination after France, relies on tourism for around 10 per cent of its GDP or some €100 billion a year. It welcomed 16 million Britons, or 28 per cent of all foreign arrivals in 2007.

But, last year the pound weakened to near-parity with the euro - a 22.4 per cent fall - and cost-conscious British looked to holiday in non-single currency destinations to the east.

"Spain has lost one million British tourists last year. The British are being turned more towards Turkey or Egypt," said Sebastian Escarrer, the chairman of trade body Exceltur and chief executive officer of Spain's biggest hotel group, Sol Melia.

He said for the first time he could remember, no British tour operator was operating flights to Spain's Balearic islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza this winter.

Exceltur said Spain's tourism income would fall 5.7 per cent this year as the global economic crisis deepened. Spain will earn €40.5 billion from foreign tourists this year, Mr Escarrer told reporters, down from 42.2 billion two years earlier, according to balance of payments data.

Earnings for the first 10 months of last year dropped by 4.1 per cent. "Bad figures registered in November and the expected figures for last month look like producing a bigger fall up to the end of the year," he said.

Exceltur, whose members include Spain's main airlines, hoteliers, travel agents and car hire companies said not only was demand falling amongforeigners, but also from Spaniards.

It said the number of nights spent by Spaniards in Spanish hotels will fall five per cent this year. It added that even among the best performers, hotels' key revenue per available room (RevPar) indicator had fallen between five and seven per cent over last year.