MADRID: Foreign visitors to Spain plunged 77.3 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, official data showed Wednesday, as the pandemic and travel restrictions decimated tourism.

Spain received 19 million international tourists last year, national statistics office INE said, down from 83.5 million in 2019 when it was the world’s second-most visited country after France. The last time Spain had so few foreign tourists was in the late 1960s.

France overtook Britain as Spain’s most important source of tourists last year, accounting for 3.9 million arrivals, a 65 percent decline over 2019.

The number of British visitors was down 82.4 percent to 3.2 million, making Britain Spain’s second biggest source of visitors in 2020 followed by Germany.