Independent travel soars to Spain

Numbers of UK package holidaymakers to Spain declined by almost 4% last year while independent travellers soared by a massive 30%. The percentage of people on package holidays was down to 52% while independent travellers represented 47% of arrivals, latest figures from the Spanish Tourist Office show. Overall UK tourist numbers to Spain were up by 10% in 2003 over the previous year to more than 16 million, up from 14.6 million. The UK continues to provide more visitors to Spain than any other country. The growth in independent travel to Spain is attributed to expansion by no-frills airlines like easyjet and Ryanair and increasing public confidence in booking separate travel components via the internet through online travel companies such as Expedia. Sources suggested that more people were taking short breaks to Spain using budget airlines in addition to their main summer or winter holiday. The Canary Islands is the most popular Spanish destination attracting more than 4 million UK tourists in 2003, followed by the Balearics with more than 3.8 million and Andalucia with almost 3 million. Report by Phil Davies