A new report has revealed that 7 in 10 American tourists plan to visit Spain in the coming three years, consolidating it as the number one European destination that US nationals want to visit or move to currently.
A new study has revealed that 7 in 10 American tourists are planning to visit Spain in the next three years.
Seventy percent of Americans polled plan to visit España in the coming years, with special interest among millennials (81 percent) and travellers with ‘high purchasing power’ (76 percent), according to the report 2025 “Portrait of American & Canadian International Travelers” commissioned by Spain’s Tourism Ministry in New York.
By destination, the most popular plans for American travellers are Madrid (80 percent) and Barcelona (79 percent), followed by Valencia (68 percent) and Seville (66 percent).
READ ALSO: Record number of Americans move to Spain
The islands also featured in US travel plans, with Tenerife (76 percent) and Gran Canaria (72 percent) leading the pack.
Palma de Mallorca (60 percent), Granada (61 percent), Bilbao (59 percent) and Málaga (59 percent) were also considered by a majority of travellers polled.
The data supports evidence for the post-pandemic surge in American tourism not only coming to Spain but countries across Europe.
In the first half of 2025, Spain received 2.1 million American travellers (+3.4 percent), with a total expenditure of €4.9 billion (8.1 percent more year-on-year).
In 2024 American holidaymakers were the fourth biggest spenders in Spain, with €9 billion. The average expenditure per head was €2,113 with a daily expenditure of €274 and an average stay of eight days.
Data from Turespaña shows that a total of 4.3 million American tourists visited Spain last year. Magí Castelltort, Spain’s Tourism Advisor for New York, has previously described the typical American tourist visiting Spain as a 46 year old with an average income of $131,000.
Spain ranks as the second-most visited country in the world, and an increase in flight connections between Spain and the US has further boosted visitor numbers coming across the Atlantic.
This year alone there have been new routes between Bilbao and New York, Barcelona and Boston and Madrid to Boston.
The surge in tourism also reflects greater numbers of Americans moving to Spain to live in recent years.
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Spain was the number one destination in the EU for Americans who moved to Europe in 2024, with more first-time residency permits granted by Spain to US nationals than any other year.
Eurostat data has shed light on just how popular Europe, and in particular Spain, is becoming with Americans moving overseas.
Just over 80,000 US citizens were issued a first residence permit in EU countries in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
The largest number was granted in Spain (15,638), followed by France (13,062), the Netherlands (6,732), Germany (8,507) and Denmark (5,183).
READ ALSO: American tourists in Spain – What are they like and where do they go?
