Andorra
- Political system: Parliamentary co-principality
- Capital city: Andorra la Vella
- Total area: 468 km²
- Population: 0.07 million
- Currency: euro
Language
The Andorran official language is Catalan, the language native to the country, but most of the population is also able to speak Spanish and French.
Religion
Most of the population professes Catholicism.
Currency The Principality of Andorra does not have its own currency. The usual currency for the Principality is the euro.
Andorra has a population of 76,875 (Source: Study Service of the Ministry of Finance. Data from 2004).
The population is concentrated in the two big towns of Andorra la Vella and Escaldes?Engordany, which are, with Pas de la Casa, the main centres of trade and business in the country. Other centres of secondary importance in numbers of inhabitants are Encamp and Sant Julià de Lòria, which are centres of population but much less commercial than the capital and its surroundings.
The average age of the population is 36 years and the high rate of immigration since the second half of the 20th century is the cause of the varied origin of Andorran society, in which only 35.7% have Andorran nationality. In Andorra, then, we find a very unusual situation in matters of nationality: the largest population group in Andorra is of foreign nationality, Spanish, representing 37.4% of the total population. People with Portuguese nationality come in third place (13%), overtaking those of French origin (6.6%) some years ago, and finally there is a varied group of over 17 different nationalities.
Since the approval in 1995 of a law less restrictive over access to Andorran nationality, the percentage of Andorran nationals is showing a tendency to recovery.
Catalan is the official language and the only one used in administrative and official affairs. In the street, however, Spanish is widely spoken, followed by French and Portuguese.
CLIMATE
The climate is high mountain type with Mediterranean influences, winter temperatures are low and in summer they are mild, with large variations taking place according to altitude and orientation.
Andorra enjoys a high percentage of sunny days and the climate is dry. The average annual minimum is -2ºC and the average maximum is 24ºC.
Autumn is the season with the highest rainfall while in winter there are abundant snowfalls.
VISA
Tourists coming from any country of the European Union do not need a visa to enter Andorra (Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Nederland, Belgium, Luxemburg, Ostrich, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece, United-Kingdom, Ireland, and from may 1st, 2004, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ). Those countries requiring a Schengen visa to enter and leave the communitarian area, should ask a several entries visa. In order to obtain it, please contact the French or Spanish Consulate.
Individuals traveling to Albania should contact Embassy or Consulate to verify visa requirements.
TOURISM
Tourism is the main source of economic resources of the country. Andorra has a wide range of tourist facilities and, thanks to its climate and to its condition of being a high mountainous country, it specialises in winter activities, although it also welcomes a large number of visitors during the other periods of the year.
During 2004, almost 11.7 million persons visited Andorra. 76.1% of these were day-trippers -persons who did not stay in the country overnight-, while the remaining 23.9% were tourists -persons who spend at least one night-. In terms of nationality, the vast majority of visitors are Spanish or French.
Snow, nature and shopping are the main attractions for tourists visiting Andorra. From the snow point of view, the tourist offer shows constant growth and improvement with the incorporation of the highest technology and the best services, while the ski resorts have been gradually merging their offer to improve the quality and variety of their services so that the five resorts in 2000 had become two large skiable domains by the 2004-2005 season during which 2.55 million skiing days were sold.
Meanwhile in the 2003-2004 season Grandvalira had become into being, offering one single skiable domain of European dimensions thanks to the union of the resorts of Pas de la Casa-Grau Roig and Soldeu-El Tarter while in the 2004-2005 season Vallnord was set up as a result of the commercial and marketing union of the resorts of Pal-Arinsal and Ordino-Arcalís. All in all, their commercial offer consists of 2,925 hectares of skiing areas, 282 km of ski runs, 1,357 cannons for artificial snow, 45 chair lifts, 35 surface lifts, 12 rope lifts, 8 transport carpets, 5 gondola lifts, 1 funicular and 1 aerial ropeway. Other tourist attractions in the Principality are the multi-activities and cross-country ski station of La Rabassa, the Caldea thermoludic centre and the Andorran Ice Palace (Palau de Gel d’Andorra).
With regard to accommodation, Andorra has a wide quality offer with a total of 295 establishments totaling 38,436 beds, most of which (66%) are 3, 4 or 5 star hotels. The number of hotels available merits a special mention. There are 200 hotels and more than 26,000 rooms. The second most important type of accommodation in the Principality are the tourist apartments, which contain about one fifth of the beds, more than the apartment hotels which represent 9% of the offer. Inns and guesthouses share the remaining beds on offer with a respective weight of 2% and 1.4%.
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