Tourism in Spain will experience growth this year despite uncertainty resulting from the United States-led war on Iraq, Spanish Tourism and Trade Minister Juan Costa said on Wednesday.
The minister said his optimism was based on an increase in the number of foreign visitors in the first two months of 2003, particularly from Britain and the Netherlands.
In the first two months, Spain received about 323,000 more tourists than in the same period last year, Costa said. He was signing three tourism cooperation agreements between his ministry and the Galicia autonomous government.
Statistics show the number of British vacationers grew by 35,000, while that of Germans and French dropped by 26,000 and 27,200,respectively.
The minister said the number of Dutch and Italian travelers grew, but the number of tourists from the United States remained stagnant.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2003)
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