As areas of Europe battle overtourism and crack down visitor numbers, one beautiful part of Spain is actually asking for more tourists after amassing record-breaking numbers in 2024.
The lesser-known region of Aragon in the north east of the country welcomed over four million visitors in 2024 – an increase of 180,000 on the previous year.
International tourism also incresed by nearly 12%, mostly due to people from Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Portugal.
Following this impressive growth, the tourism industry is looking to expand further afield, to areas such as South America and other European countries, and to all 12 months of the year.
Tourism Minister Manuel Blasco stressed the importance of having a stable industry all year round to help businesses and their employees, the Olive Press reports.
Aragon is known to be a very safe region, increasing its appeal to tourists. It’s also a popular place to go camping, attracting 480,000 visitors and 237,000 to rural accomodation.
August is the peak month for tourism, with 574,000 people visiting, but the quiestest month of January still attracted over 200,000.
The local tourism strategy is to combine food with tourism and promote Aragon’s natural landscapes, monuments, and historical sites.
The international market is also extremely important as visitors tend to spend twice as much as their domestic counterparts.
One such historical site is Palacio de la Aljafería – a fortified medieval palace built during the second half of the 11th century and one of the area’ most popular tourist activities.
One person wrote on Tripadvisor: “Such beauty in the intricacies of columns and traceries at the top of structure in the Moorish room. The orange grove, although small was a haven of tranquility with the sound of running water.
“Outside there is a giant moat that surrounds the palace … Definitely worth a visit. Of course this palace is tiny compared to the Mesquite in Cordoba and the garden small compared to the Alhambra but it certainly has a great charm of its own.”
Another added: “We were astonished by this place, it is like living inn a fairy tale. The mudejar architecture is absolutely gorgeous, the place has a lot of history in different time periods and there are lots of things to see. The garden, the patios, the halls, the throne rooms.”
A third chimed in: “Worth while visit. A view into very different eras of history, Islamic, post-Islamic, Christian and modern. Do it!”
