Mandarin maps and rice for breakfast: Chinese tourists become Spain's top holiday spenders

Chinese holidaymakers are now Spain's biggest spenders, outstripping Russians for the first time, as the tourism industry rushes to adapt to their tastes with a string of measures designed to keep them coming.

Between April and September last year, Chinese tourists were responsible for 31 per cent of Spain's tourist revenue, according to tourist spending consultancy Global Blue.

During the same period, spending by Russians - previously the biggest spenders per head - fell by 14.3 per cent after worsening relations between the European Union and Russia and the fall in the value of the rouble against the euro.

Now Spain is fast waking up to the rising number of Chinese visitors, with welcome signs in Chinese increasingly seen alongside other languages in shops, museums and other tourist sites.

Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum , which houses many 19th-century Impressionist paintings, last year started offering maps in Chinese - the first major museum in the Spanish capital to do so.

Some hotels are offering access to Chinese TV stations and adapting their menus to cater to Chinese tastes, including noodles with chicken, dim sum and white rice at breakfast.

Ten Spanish cities have joined an organisation called Chinese Friendly, which promotes them to the growing market.