The tourism sector in Spain has a relevance and weight in the Spanish economy compared to other very notable sectors since it contributes more than 12% to the country's gross domestic product, generating in 2018 the figure of 147,946 million euros (last figure closed by the National Statistics Institute) and employing more than 2,395,030 people, being the second sector that contributes the most employment only after the commerce sector.
Spain is located in the second most visited country in the world, bordering on 84 million international tourists in 2019, only after France and in the second country that receives the most income via this route, only behind the United States.
In addition, 87.33% of those visitors came for leisure (cultural, gastronomic, linguistic ...) and the rest for professional reasons (events such as the Mobil World Congress)
In the Valencian Community, the total number of visitors was 9,566,566 in 2019 (3.9% more than in 2018) travelers, of which, 22.5% of them (2,156,017) chose the offer of extra hotel accommodation (tourist apartments), not insignificant figures if we talk about a cake of almost 148,000 million euros.
The main countries of origin are:
· United Kingdom, with a 30% share, 1.5% less than last year, mainly due to the cheaper tourist offer of sun and sand in the Eastern Mediterranean countries and the effect of the fall of Thomas Cook .
· France, with a total of 1,646,223 tourists, representing an increase of 7% over last year.
· Nordic countries, with 873,683 tourists, with a very notable increase of 13.3% over the previous year, followed by Germany in third place, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium.