Strong rise in e-commerce in Spain, led by travel agencies

Electronic commerce turnover in Spain increased by 23% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2015 to ?5,309 million, according to the latest e-commerce data available on the CNMCData portal. The sectors of activity with the highest revenues are travel agencies and tour operators, with 13.2% of the total turnover.

Electronic commerce revenues within Spain increased by 23.9% year-on-year in the October-December period, to ?2,196.8 million. In the case of purchases made in Spain from abroad, 73.2% came from the EU.

The areas of activity related to the tourism sector (which includes travel agencies, air transport, land transport, car rental and hotels) accounted for 64.3% of purchases.

The net foreign balance (the difference between what is purchased from abroad from Spanish websites and what is purchased from Spain abroad) shows a deficit of 1,567 million euros. By number of transactions, 44.3% of sales are recorded on Spanish websites and 55.6% on foreign websites.

The number of transactions recorded in the last three months of 2015 reached 86.6 million transactions, up 28.1% compared to 67.6 million in the same quarter of the previous year.

In the case of travel agencies and tour operators, they account for 3.8% 3.8% of transactions and 3.8% for air transport, which rank eighth and ninth, respectively, in the ranking of the ten branches with the highest percentage of transactions.

The turnover of transactions originating in Spain and directed abroad amounted to 2,339.7 million euros, 24.1% more than in the fourth quarter of the previous year. 93.1% of purchases from Spain to foreign countries are directed to the European Union, followed by the United States (3.5%).