A total of 49.5 million foreign visitors arrived in Spain between January and November, placing the drop in tourist arrivals at 8.9 percent for that period, according to government data published Monday.

Statistics and official data from Spain’s tourist department show that the number of tourists have declined compared to figures of the past year during the months of January to November. Tourists and visitors who booked their getaways to destinations along Spain’s popular coastal resorts including usually dependable Benidorm holidays and those found in the Costa del Sol suffered a significant decline in numbers and much of this can be attributed to the global financial crisis which hit Europe and most of the world’s market economies.

Through October, the decline in international tourist arrivals had been 9.3 percent, while in the high season – July, August and September – the accumulated fall-off was around 10 percent, according to survey results published by the Industry, Tourism and Commerce Ministry.

In November, Spain received 2.8 million foreign tourists, 3.1 percent fewer than in the same month last year but a slight bit better than the drop for the month of October versus that month last year, which had been 3.6 percent.