Madrid Surges Ahead As Destination Hotspot As Tourism Returns
Search engine giant Google has released its latest data of travel destination searches over the last month showing that Spain remains a clear favourite and with Madrid leap-frogging summer beach destinations to be the second most popular spot in the country.
As the pandemic receeds and the freeze on international travel thaws, many travellers are itching to get back in the air and Spain appears to be very well positioned.
According to Google statistics, Spain is among the three most searched for destinations by users who are thinking of travelling and seeking accommodation over the next few months in the world with only the United States and Italy more popular.
The latest figures for June release by Travel Insights with Google – which offers statistics with local data in real time, shows that the three favourite Spanish destinations for Google searches are Ibiza, Madrid and Barcelona, followed by such other coastal destinations as Benidorm, Malaga and Maspalomas in the Canary Islands.
According to the Google tool, the search for Spain as a tourist destination has seen steady growth since the end of the state of emergency on May 9th.
In the first week of June, there was double the number of searches as in the same period last year, as well as almost 50% more than at the start of May this year.
By country, users from Germany are those who show the greatest interest in Spain as a tourist destination, followed by users from France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Most of the searches for Spain, however, are recorded from within the country, thus pointing to a reactivation of national tourism. 
Spain and several of its cities, moreover, figure among the destinations with the highest increase in demand in the world, thanks to recent changes in the mobility restrictions.
Madrid in line with other autonomous regions has placed significant resources in order to promote itself as a travel destination for both internation and domestic visitors.
Specifically, it is the fifth ranked country to see the highest growth in searches in the first week of June (up 10% – 20%), while, by city, Madrid – with search growth of between 25% and 50% in the same week – stands in second place, ahead of New York, Paris and Istanbul. Ibiza and Barcelona, ranked in 8th and 9th position respectively, also appear in this top 10, with search growth of between 10% and 25%.
As well as the data offered by Google, there are other data that point to optimism in the summer tourism campaign. According to the travel portal Weekendesk.es, reservations for sustainable tourism destinations in our country have shot up by 237% in the last year.
These figures place Spain as one of the destinations where this type of tourism has most consolidated its position, above the average (189%) of all the markets analysed, which include France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Catalonia is the autonomous region to post the greatest demand for this type of holiday, accounting for 75% of the reservations for eco-sustainable accommodation – those with renewable energy sources and concerned to reduce the environmental impact of their activity as much as possible. It is followed by Andalusia (14%) and the Region of Valencia (9%). Moreover, according to Weekendesk, the residents of these regions post the greatest demand for this type of holiday, frequently in conjunction with gastronomic activities.
