Spain's tourism revenue nearly halves in January-April amid lockdown

No tourists traveled to Spain in April because of the coronavirus lockdown, dragging income from the key sector down by just about half in the first four months of the year, the National Statistics Office (INE) said on Monday. Tourists only spent 11.7 billion euros ($13.02 billion) between January and April, 48% lower than a year ago, the INE said.

Spain, which entered into lockdown mid-March to contain the pandemic, welcomed only 10.58 million tourists in these four months, half of the visitors that traveled there during the same period last year. Tourism normally accounts for over 12% of the gross domestic product in the world's second most visited country after France. ($1 = 0.8988 euros)