Spain has recorded its worst tourism industry output in decades as the number of foreign travellers in 2020 plunged to 19 million due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to reports, Spain received a whopping 84 million tourists in 2019, making it one of the world’s top travel destinations. However, the COVID-19-induced restrictions saw the numbers drop by 77%, the first negative growth for the Spanish tourism industry in more than 10 years.
The country earned just EUR 20 billion in 2020, a 79% decline from the year before when the industry contributed EUR 92 billion to the Spanish economy. Before the pandemic hit and gripped the global travel industry, Spain’s 1.1 trillion-euro GDP blossomed with an 11% contribution from the…