Feature: Chinese tourists returning to Spain

BARCELONA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- As the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic eases off, Chinese tourists are flocking to Spain.

This week in Barcelona, Xinhua joined a group of 14 visitors from Guangzhou, China, who were shown around the iconic landmarks of Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia church.

Based in Barcelona and specializing in showing groups of tourists from China around the city, Chen Tingting, a tourist guide, confirmed that Chinese visitors are now coming in increasing numbers.

"I've heard that large agencies aim to get through this year and then next year to get back to at least 50 percent of the pre-COVID levels, but I'm more optimistic because I see a lot of people in China really keen to travel after the pandemic," Chen told Xinhua.

According to Chen, Chinese tourists are returning on such a large scale that "the consulates of Spain, France and Germany in China could not cope with the numbers of visa applications."

The group of Chinese tourists that Xinhua accompanied was on a 10-day tour of Spain and Portugal, which included visits to Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Granada, Huelva, Toledo, and Segovia.

"All my friends in July now are all in different countries because it's been three years that we all stayed in our country and could not travel," a holidaymaker in the group told Xinhua.

Attracting Chinese tourists is a priority of the Spanish tourism agency Turespana, which has organized a string of activities like the Spain-China tourism cooperation forum, and a promotional trip to China, in an effort to let more Chinese get to know about Spain.

Individual cities and areas in Spain are also promoting themselves as ideal tourist destinations in China, such as Barcelona, which last year attracted some 9.7 million visitors.

"Out of all the visitors we get, we would very much like the proportion of Chinese visitors to go up, because they are visitors especially interested in the culture, and visitors that put culture as a priority is the type of visitors we want to see," Eduard Torres, president of the Executive Committee of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, told Xinhua.

Torres added that his organization is also "facilitating and encouraging our different cultural institutions to go to China and promote themselves."

In 2019, the year before the pandemic, some 700,000 Chinese tourists visited Spain, staying an average of eight days and spending an average of 2,400 euros per person, according to data from Spanish authorities.