According to Pedro Medina, deputy director of the Spanish Tourist Office, early tourism indicators for 2022 show summer air capacity is 3.47% below 2019 levels, but there is a growing average length of stay from UK visitors – 11.4 nights in January 2022 compared 8.73 at the same time in 2021.

However, Medina emphasised how the country’s tourism strategy for 2022 was not based around arrival statistics.

"Yes in 2019, Spain registered over 83.5 million international arrivals, which is huge, however our focus is not to recover these numbers," he said.

"We are looking at a more long-term tourism strategy which encourages social, environmental, and economic sustainability.  

"In the short-term, we are focusing on bringing back quality tourism and rebuilding traveller confidence, whilst in the mid- to long-term, we will be identifying and targeting key consumer groups which are aligned to our sustainability objectives."

In 2020, international arrivals to Spain dropped by more than 77% compared to the previous year, whilst the tourism expenditure in the same period dropped by 78%.

In 2021, Spain registered just under 32 million international arrivals, representing around 37% of the 2019 numbers.

It comes after Vueling added five new routes from Gatwick to Seville, Granada, Malaga, Almeria and Menorca.