SPAIN continues to forge ahead with regard to British tourists, a rise of 18% announced for the first six months of the year with 7.2m UK visitors noted, up from 6.1m in January to June 2002. While reporting this massive rise in UK numbers, the overall improvement in visitor numbers was only 2.8%. In terms of destinations, the Balearics are the most popular attracting 27% of all visitors, with Catalonia 23%. http://www.tourspain.es