Passenger traffic at Madrid-Barajas Airport 2005-2020

Spain’s capital city’s airport, Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, was the country’s leading airport in terms of passenger volume, with figures reaching nearly 61.7 million travelers that visited its premises in 2019, before the COVID-19 made the global air traffic plummet. Madrid-Barajas Airport experienced a considerable increase in the volume of passengers over the last years, ranking it as one of the busiest airports in Europe in 2019.

Spain: an indisputable travel destination

Spain ranked second on the World Tourism Organization’s list of most visited countries in the world, with its number of international visitors amounting to 83.5 million in 2019. The Mediterranean country was also one of Europe’s favorite holiday destinations in 2020 – France, the United Kingdom, and Germany appeared in the leading positions of the largest number of international visitors to Spain by country of residence.

Tourism constitutes an essential industry for the Spanish economic system

The travel and tourism sector has become one of the leading engines of growth for the Spanish economy, featuring an ongoing increase in the GDP contribution over the last years and reached approximately 154.5 billion euros in 2019. The industry plays a key role to boost the Spanish employment market, which has been experiencing a significant improvement since the 2007 financial crisis jeopardized and destroyed many jobs across the country. The coronavirus pandemic has hit the tourism sector particularly hard, destroying once again a vast amount of jobs.