Spanish Tourism benefits from N African disruptions..

The demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt have resulted (not suprisingly) in an increase in visitors to Spain this winter.

Sol Melia, Vice President, Sebastian Escarrer, announced that tourism in Spain has recovered due mainly to the 'woes' of it's north African competitors.

Tourism during the first quarter grew 2.4% on top of growth of 1.7% during the last quarter of 2010- three times the growth rate of the Spanish economy (0.7 %).

The main cause for the increase was the riots that occurred in Tunisia and Egypt in February and March, which saw foreign tourists choose Spain for their winter sun destination, specifically the Canary Islands .

Spain received 5.5 million tourists in the first two months of the year, representing an increase of 4.5% over the same period of 2010, according to figures provided by the Inbound Tourism Survey (Frontur) .

The UK delivered most tourists despite a decline of 5.6%, followed by Germany and France, with a fall 0.5%, and France, which showed an improvement in arrivals of 4.9%.

In February, international tourist arrivals reached 2.8 million tourists, representing an increase of 4.3% over the same month last year. This is the first growth in this month after two years of regular falls.

The Canaries have been the main destination for international tourists with 32.2% of arrivals (1.7 million tourists), representing an increase of 13.5% compared to same period in 2010.

The Balearics received between January and February, 259,525 tourists, down 2% over the same period of 2010 due to the reduced inflow of German tourists in February.

In the beach sector, domestic businesses and hoteliers have requested a summit with President Zapatero as the summer sun market has to yet recover. The chief executive of Exceltur, Jose Luis Zoreda,stated that “it takes billions of euros to renovate the product of the Spanish coast."