Spanish sun draws record number of tourists

Record numbers of foreign tourists poured into Spain in 2013 to bake on sunny beaches but a new challenge lies ahead: luring them to holiday spots inland. An unprecedented 60.4 million foreign tourists came to Spain last year, spending an estimated 45.1 billion euros ($61 billion), according to industry association Exceltur. The visitors came mostly from Britain, Germany and France, with a jump in Russian tourist numbers, too, it said. "It was a really good year which gives us a lot of hope after some difficult years," Exceltur president Amancio Lopez told AFP. Indeed, tourism is pivotal to the Spanish economy, which emerged in the third quarter last year from a two-year recession, still dragged down by a 26-per cent unemployment rate.