MADRID, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Spain received a total of 4.2 million international tourists in February, according to data published on Wednesday by Spain's National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The figure meant an increase of 2.6 percent when compared to the same month of 2017.
Arrivals from Britain reached 865,316. The French and Germans ranked second and third, with 549,654 and 532,636 arrivals respectively.
The archipelago of the Canary Islands received the largest number of tourists in February, accounting for 28.2 percent of the total, while the regions of Catalonia (east) and Andalusia (south) received 24.1 percent and 13.8 percent of the total respectively.
The INE also revealed that international visitors spent a total of 4.5 billion euros (5.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the second month of the year, 4.7 percent more than in February 2017.
The average expenditure per tourist stood at 1,067 euros, 2.1 percent more than last February, while the average daily expenditure grew by 8.2 percent year-on-year to 143 euros.
Spain's tourism sector is key for the economy, representing about 11 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
According to experts, international tourism has been essential to overcome the crisis, counteracting the decline of national tourism and the difficult situation of other sectors of the economy.
Some specialists, however, call for reflection on aspects such as the tourist model or the uneven distribution of the tourism in Spanish territory, which is especially concentrated in areas such as the archipelagos of the Balearic Islands.
In 2017, Spain received 81.8 million international tourists, 8.6 percent more than in 2016, breaking its own record.
