Overview
- BBVA Research found that foreign in‑person spending in Spain rose 13.8% year‑on‑year in the week that included the Aug. 12 eclipse, a gain about three percentage points above the two prior weeks.
- The uplift was highly concentrated: Soria recorded the largest jump at about 220% year‑on‑year and other prime viewing provinces such as La Rioja, Asturias, Segovia, Teruel, León and Zaragoza saw increases between roughly 77% and 106%.
- Week‑on‑week accelerations were especially large in viewing hotspots, with Soria up 186 percentage points from the previous week and double‑digit point gains in La Rioja, Guadalajara, Teruel, Segovia, León and Zaragoza.
- Spending by domestic travellers, proxied by BBVA clients using cards outside their home province, did not show an eclipse‑related boost and fell in almost all province groups, a pattern partly explained by differences in the Aug. 15 holiday calendar.
- BBVA’s results come from foreign‑card purchases on the bank’s point‑of‑sale terminals and show a short, location‑specific substitution effect toward best‑viewing sites; the paper notes the impact is temporary and limited to BBVA’s transaction footprint so wider economic effects remain uncertain.