Only just over a third (37%) of UK travellers to Spain booked their holiday as part of a package, according to latest official figures.
The UK represented almost a quarter of total international arrivals (24%) with 12.5 million visitors in the first 10 months of the year, a slight drop of 0.6% year on year.
The Balearic Islands was the most popular choice, attracting more than 3 million UK tourist arrivals from January to October.
The Canary Islands were the next most popular with more than 2.9 million UK visitors, followed by Andalucía (2.1 million) and the region of Valencia (1.8 million).
The Spanish Tourist Office said 63% of UK visitors from January to October opted for hotel accommodation.
More than 93% of British arrivals travelled to Spain for leisure or holiday purposes, 3.4% for work and just over 1.8% travelled for personal reasons.
Overall international visitors in the 10 month period rose by 3.1% to more than 52 million
Germany was the second largest market (16.2%) with 8.4 million tourists showing a 4.3% year on year increase. France was the third largest market for international visitors (15.4%) with over 8 million arrivals showing a 6.3% increase.
The number of Russian visitors to Spain soared by 41% year on year increase, with more than one million arrivals.