If anyone still doubted it, the numbers are in: Benidorm is officially Britain’s number-one holiday haunt in Spain.
According to fresh data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), more UK visitors headed to Benidorm in 2024 than to any other Spanish destination.
Benidorm: Britain’s number-one holiday destination
The INE used mobile phone signals to track where tourists were going. It turns out 5.6% of all trips by British visitors to Spain ended up in Benidorm, beating Adeje in Tenerife (5.12%) and Barcelona (4.91%). Considering the UK is Spain’s single biggest market, that’s no small feat.
Other Costa Blanca spots did well too. Orihuela pulled in Belgians, Irish, and Swedes, while Torrevieja proved a magnet for Scandinavians, ranking just behind Barcelona for Swedish arrivals.
June 2025 snapshot
The most recent figures underline just how strong Benidorm’s pull is. In June alone, 161,726 foreign mobiles pinged local antennas, and a whopping 130,079 of those belonged to Brits. Ireland came a very distant second with 6,170, followed by the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, France, Italy, Poland, Germany, and Sweden.
Across the province of Alicante, nearly 300,000 of the 700,000 international visitors were from the UK.
Domestic vs international
Not that Benidorm relies solely on flights from Manchester and Gatwick. The INE also looked at Spanish visitors, with 132,224 nationals heading to Benidorm in June. Madrid topped the list, accounting for over 12% of Spanish arrivals.
And what about Benidorm’s own residents? In July 2025, locals mostly took short breaks to Madrid and Valencia, with Murcia, Barcelona, and Seville also on the list.
Benidorm’s bikini revolution
Back in the 1950s and 60s, Benidorm wasn’t just a sleepy fishing town. The arrival of the SEAT 600 put holidays within reach for ordinary Spaniards, but it was the arrival of the bikini, smuggled in by stylish French tourists, that really made waves.
At first, the skimpy two-piece was scandalous, sparking plenty of raised eyebrows and mutterings about morals. But the sun, sea, and the town’s growing hotel scene soon helped the bikini win its battle. By the mid-60s, Benidorm had gone from controversy to cool.
