Chaos in Spain as tourists abandoned country for 1 reason

Spain is a popular destination for American tourists but they are starting to abandon the country. Last year, around 4.2 million Americans visited the European nation, representing around 4.5% of total visitors.

However, fewer American holidaymakers are visiting Spain this summer due to a weakened dollar. It has declined by over 10% over the last six months and currently sits at a three-year low. There are concerns that the lack of visitors could negatively impact the Spanish economy this year.

A weaker dollar means American tourists face higher costs abroad. As it takes more dollars to buy a euro, everything will cost them more in Spain.

As reported by The Local, research suggests the weakened dollar could hit Spain's tourism GDP growth by up to one percentage point in 2025. The report, by CaixaBank Research, revealed that spending with US bank cards in Spain went from increasing by 17% between January and October 2024 to falling by 2.2% between November 2024 and May 2025.

The report said: "The appreciation of the euro against the dollar, the slowdown of the U.S. economy, and an increase in political and economic uncertainty appear to be behind this change in trend."

It added: "Passenger arrivals from the US slowed abruptly, going from 17.5 percent year-on-year growth in the first 10 months of 2024 to just 2.3 percent between November 2024 and May 2025."

According to the research, non-coastal urban areas have been most affected by the drop in American visitors. However, there is less impact in rural areas where those from the States do not often visit.

Americans make up a large percentage of the tourists that visit Barcelona every year. Since 2019, the amount of American visitors increased by 28.3%, compared to 12.3% of total arrivals from abroad.

The report stated: ""If we breakdown Spanish municipalities into urban (more than 30,000 inhabitants) and rural, and between coastal and non-coastal, we observe that the influence of American tourism is particularly significant in non-coastal urban municipalities (14.7 percent), around Barcelona and Madrid, according to the latest analysis by Turespaña.

"In rural municipalities, both coastal and non-coastal, the influence of American tourism is slightly above 4 percent."

However, the author of the report, David César Heymann, said the decrease of visitors from the States is more pronounced due to visitor numbers in recent years. The number of American travellers to Spain grew more in 2024 than in Europe as a whole.