(1888PressRelease)
February 24, 2007 - According to Frontur, the survey on Tourist Frontier Movements published by the Spanish government, in the space of just one month, 2.8 million international travellers visited Spain, four per cent more than a year ago, reports typicallyspanish.com .
But it appears that travellers are looking at the less visited parts of Spain, rather than staying in hotels on the famous resorts.
A quarter of visitors went to the Canary Islands but this was 2.4 per cent down and there was also a considerable 7.2 per cent fall in the number of British tourists who visited the popular Andalucia region last month.
However, the region as a whole saw an increase of 5.4 per cent and Valencia had 272,000 more tourists, 4.6 per cent more than last year.
Madrid, Castilla-Leon and Cataluna saw the largest rises of 11.3, 17.5 and 7.4 per cent respectively, illustrating that tourists are spreading their wings somewhat when it comes to travelling in Spain.
This could be good news for property investors who rely on renting out their homes to tourists as it means that travellers are seeking to explore the cultural depths of the country that require accommodation in villas and townhouses as opposed to hotels on the coast.
Official figures released on Wednesday show that there may be a growth in capital appreciation over the coming months due to the strong performance of the country's economy.
Gross domestic product increased by four per cent in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the national statistics institute and the economy as a whole annually grew by 0.4 per cent more than in 2005, reports EFE with Expatica.
A chief propellant of this growth was the construction industry, which is evidently beginning to generate profits that are causing the nation's economy to grow.
New residential building and public works projects caused the industry to grow by six per cent and the plethora of properties now available means that the housing trade has now become something of a buyers' market.
According to the Knight Frank global house price index, the average Spanish property grew by 9.7 per cent in the third quarter of last year, higher than growth of UK property, which stood at 8.7 per cent.
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