August is here and, therefore, the summer month par excellence in our country. Those who can afford it take advantage of the opportunity to pack their bags and go on vacation or make some kind of getawayThe most common thing is to leave the big city to go to the village, to the beach or abroad. Public has analyzed the experimental statistics of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which measures tourism through mobile phone signals recorded by telephone antennas, to know How Spaniards move during the month of August.
Last year, the INE measurement recorded 17.10 million trips by Spaniards: 14.39 within the country and 2.71 abroad. This does not mean that 17.10 million Spaniards went on holiday in August 2023since the same person may have made more than one trip. In fact, in the third quarter of 2023 the country had 48.37 million inhabitants, According to INE data. Therefore, even if no one had made more than one trip, only 35.35% of Spaniards would have gone on holiday that month.
Portugal, France and Italy are the favourite destinations abroad for Spaniards in August
But what are the favorite destinations? After the National territorywhere they were carried out 84.15% of the tripsare Portugal (with 733,931 trips), France (663,653), Italy (230,205) and the United Kingdom (112,620). They are the only countries to which more than 100,000 Spaniards travelled last August.
Germany and Morocco are close to reaching the figure of 100,000, while Andorra (with 58,432 trips), another neighbouring country, is in seventh position. Next in line are the United States, Greece, the Netherlands, Gibraltar and Romania.
Neighboring countries, a favorite destination
The preference for neighbouring countries is clear. Even so, not all Spaniards choose destinations in the same proportion. INE statistics allow us to know where tourists are from and Public has analyzed how people in the six most populated cities in Spain move in summer (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza and Malaga). While people from Madrid, Seville and Malaga have Portugal as their favourite destination abroad, Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza residents opt for Francewhich is much closer to them.
The people of Seville are the ones who have a much clearer preferred destination abroad: Portugal
In all cases, the other country – Portugal or France – is the second favourite of the inhabitants of these cities, with the exception of Barcelona, where Italy sneaks into second place and Portugal is relegated to third. The proximity factor is very clear.. Barcelona is the furthest city from Portugal out of the six cities. Similarly, Seville is the case where the first foreign destination is the furthest away from the others. That first destination is Portugal and, of the six cities, Seville is the closest to this country.
From Madrid to Alacant and from Barcelona to the Costa Brava
In any case, in all cases, the inhabitants of the main cities choose more to travel within Spain. Although the INE only counts trips when they are to a province other than that of the tourist. madrileñosfor example, are mainly going to beach towns. Last August His favorite destinations were: Alicante (34,422 trips), Valencia (29.164), Barcelona (28.740), Marbella (28.414) and Benidorm (27.292).
Only the cities of Alicante, Valencia and Barcelona —when all three are added together— received more Madrilenians in August 2023 than the whole of Portugal, the favourite country as a foreign destination for the inhabitants of the capital. In addition, The preference of Madrid residents for the Alicante beach is clearTen of the 50 municipalities that received the most visits last August are in this province.
But not everyone moves like the people of Madrid. For the inhabitants of Barcelona The favorite destination was the city of Madrid, but in the following positions are multitude of municipalities on the Catalan coast, such as Calafell (Tarragona), Palafrugell (Girona), Castell-Platja d’Aro (Girona) or El Vendrell (Tarragona). You have to go up to fifteenth position to find a municipality from another autonomous community again. In this case, Ciutadella de Menorca, another favorite destination for Barcelonans.
In fact, of the 20 municipalities that Barcelona residents visited the most in August last year, only Madrid and Ciutadella are outside Catalonia. The rest are seven municipalities in Tarragona and 11 in Girona, all on the coast. The data makes it clear that the Costa Brava, in Girona, is the destination par excellence for people from Barcelona in summer; followed by a search, yes, along the Costa Daurada, in Tarragona.
This effect is similar to the one that occurs in Valencia. Their favorite destinations are beach towns in Alicantesuch as Xàbia and Dènia, and from Castellólike Benicàssim and Moncofa. In the case of the Sevillians where they travel the most is to municipalities of the coast of Huelva and Cadizthe two coastal provinces closest to the Andalusian capital. Among others, places such as Chipiona and Rota, in Cádiz, or Almonte and El Puerto de Santa María, in Huelva.
In the case of the people of Zaragozahis two favorite municipalities last August, quite far from the rest, were Helloa beach destination in Tarragona, and Jacaa mountain town in the Huesca Pyrenees. For the people of Malaga, the most popular destinations were Madrid, Tarifa (Cádiz), Granada, Conil de la Frontera (Cádiz) and Almuñécar (Granada).
METHODOLOGY
This information has been made from experimental statistics Measuring tourism using mobile phonesfrom the National Institute of Statistics (INE). This statistic collects the tourist trips of Spaniards from the positioning of mobile phones. Both tourists with destination abroad as in other provinces.
Public has analysed the data from both statistics in order to collect the total number of trips made in August 2023 by Spaniards. The data is provided by mobile phone operators, as they collect the positioning signals of the phones through the antennas, and is provided to the INE to be published in an anonymous and grouped form. The analysis has focused on residents in the six most populated cities in Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza and Malaga. The only six that exceed half a million inhabitants.
Unless otherwise indicated, whenever the number of tourists is mentioned, it refers to the total number of trips made. The INE counts as a tourist any person who has spent at least one night at the destination. But if the same tourist makes more than one trip, they are counted on more than one occasion. If, for example, a Madrid resident went to Alicante for a few days and Galicia for a few days in August 2023, they will count as two tourists: one for each destination. Even if they went to Alicante for a few days, returned to Madrid and spent the night and went back to Alicante, they will count as two different tourists with a destination in Alicante in that month of August.
This happens because the INE receives the data from the telephone operators anonymized and, therefore, cannot know who each tourist is or which mobile phone each trip belongs to. Similarly, the INE ensures in its methodology that for municipalities with very few tourists there is no data due to statistical secrecy, although it does not specify up to what figure this safeguard applies.
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