"Eclipse tourists" are flocking to Spain

Millions of people are traveling across Spain this Wednesday to watch the total solar eclipse. This phenomenon is expected to be one of the world’s greatest natural spectacles.

Spain is the only country in Europe where conditions are ideal for properly viewing the solar eclipse, with a path stretching from La Coruña in the northwest to Mallorca in the east. A small part of Portugal, as well as certain regions of Greenland and Iceland, will also be able to observe the total eclipse. A partial eclipse will be visible in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and northern Italy, among other places.

An estimated 460,000 foreign visitors have traveled to Spain specifically to witness this meteorological phenomenon. More than 300,000 of them will head to rural areas in search of the best vantage point. Hotels have been fully booked for months, and special glasses for safely viewing the eclipse are sold out in many stores.

The totality phase will last less than two minutes, but it's attracting “eclipse chasers” from around the world. According to The Guardian, some have even traveled to Spain from Canada, Japan, and the United States.

Spanish authorities have taken extensive measures: up to 1.5 million additional car trips are expected, and more than 24,000 police officers have been mobilized. According to the British newspaper, the heat and the risk of wildfires have also been taken into account.

It is also possible to safely view the eclipse via a NASA livestream. NASA spent nearly a year searching for the ideal location to observe the eclipse and found it in Villalibado, a small town in northwestern Spain. The U.S. space agency installed four powerful telescopes in this village, which had been uninhabited for nearly three decades before being transformed into a rural tourism destination.