World Cup boosts Chinese tourists' interest in Spain: retailers prepare for Golden Week

Published on 23/07/2026 - 21:58 GMT+2

Spain's World Cup victory has fuelled interest among Chinese tourists in visiting the country and opens up an opportunity for retailers ahead of Golden Week, one of China's main holiday periods, according to data from travel platform Qunar compiled by Spanish company Stamp.

Searches for flights between Shenzhen and Barcelona rose thirty-three-fold in the hours following La Roja's triumph, while searches for Tenerife were up nineteen times and those for Malaga 10.5 times.

More broadly, according to a 2024 study by the University of Aberdeen published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, winning the World Cup raises the champion country's year-on-year GDP growth by at least 0.48% over the two quarters after the final, before the effect fades, even though the sample of winners analysed is inevitably small. Applied to the size of the Spanish economy, at 1.69 trillion euros, that estimated increase would amount to around 4 billion euros.

In the case of the Asian giant, however, the surge in interest is also underpinned by a trend that was already well under way. According to data from Aena, air traffic between Spain and China reached 707,530 passengers in the first half of 2026, 46.8% more than in the same period a year earlier. The launch of new air routes and the increase in travellers from cities such as Chengdu and Guangzhou have strengthened this recovery, which the World Cup has helped to accelerate.

With Golden Week scheduled from 1 to 8 October, Stamp has published a guide to help Spanish retailers adapt to Chinese consumers' preferences. The document highlights that 77.8% of these travellers plan their shopping before they travel via platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo or WeChat, making online visibility crucial for attracting customers.

The Spanish company specialising in shopping tourism also stresses the importance of accepting payment methods such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, used in more than 90% of purchases made by Chinese tourists abroad, as well as simplifying the VAT refund process.

"Today's Chinese tourist does not have Tax Free, he has Tax Refund: he pays the full VAT at the till and, weeks later, if everything goes well, gets part of it back," explains Abel Navajas, co-founder and chief executive of Stamp. According to the executive, removing that friction and applying the discount at the time of purchase could prove decisive in helping Spanish retailers make the most of the rise in tourism from China.