Why are fewer American tourists visiting Spain this summer?

Local Spain

a day ago

American tourism in Spain is slowing down after a strong post-pandemic period, causing experts to worry that the shortfall may negatively impact the Spanish economy in 2025.
According to a recent tourism sector report by CaixaBank Research, titled Uncertainty and American Tourism, it is estimated that the downturn could hit Spain's tourism GDP growth by as much up to one percentage point this year.
In a context in which the travel industry is slowing overall, going from 6 percent in 2024 to 2.7 percent, in 2025, the slowdown in the American market stands out as a 'relevant' factor to take into account in terms of the Spanish market, according to the bank's findings.
The report points to several possible explanations, including a weaker dollar and global economic instability caused by President Donald Trump's trade policy as possible reasons causing Americans to stay home.
'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,' the report states, pointing to November 2024, when Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, as a turning point in the longer-term trends.
However, it should be noted that the 'slowdown' refers to tourism growth among Americans going from exceptionally fast to slower but still growing overall.
'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,' the report says.
American tourists in Spain spend well above average for foreign tourists in the country. Last year, they accounted for 4 percent of the nearly 94 million foreign tourists but 7.1 percent of overall spending.
In cities such as Barcelona, they already represent a large group of foreign travellers, although their prominence has been growing across the country in recent years: since 2019, arrivals of Americans travellers increased by 28.3 percent, compared to 12.3 percent of total international arrivals.
However, CaixaBank points out that spending with US bank cards in Spain has gone from growing by 17 percent year-on-year between January and October 2024 to falling by 2.2 percent between November of that year and May 2025.
In contrast, total spending with foreign cards slowed more moderately, with an increase of 11.1 percent between January and October 2024 to 8.5 percent between November and May.
The research also identifies the areas of Spain most affected by a drop in American visitors, pointing to an urban preference among tourists coming from the States: '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.'
Nevertheless, David César Heymann, economist at CaixaBank Research and author of the report, points out that the number of American travellers to Spain grew much more in 2024 than in Europe as a whole (22.3 percent compared to 7.3 percent), which is why the slowdown is now more pronounced.
From January to April this year, Spain received 25.6 million international tourists, 7.1 percent more than in the same period in 2024. Year-on-year growth at that time was much higher, at around 18 percent.
Average spending per tourist, an indicator used to measure the value of visitors, has barely increased by 2 percent in the first four months of the year, well below the 7.1 percent increase experienced last year.