Spain is renowned for the warmth of its climate and also of its people, with a new survey now confirming why so many UK property-seekers choose the Iberian peninsula as their ideal location.

A survey carried out by lifestyle networking site Wayn.com showed that Spain is the most welcoming country in the non-English-speaking world for UK visitors.

Beaten only by the USA and Ireland and even ranking above fellow English-speaker Australia, Spain was by far and away the most open European nation to travellers and ex-pats wandering the sunny shores of its country.

Many are likely to be surprised by results at the other end of the spectrum, where popular holiday-destination France was labelled the most hostile to UK property-seekers and tourists, recording a 32 per cent hostility vote to its cross-channel invaders.

Co-founder of the website Jeremy Touze is in fact himself French and claims to be "shocked to learn France is considered the least welcoming. I urge people to give it a chance".

Meanwhile no encouragement is needed for Brits looking to head further south to the Spanish costas, where the people have been shown to be as welcoming as the food and the climate are.

Those moving abroad can sometimes be put off by the language barrier – which explains the welcoming nature of English-speaking America and Ireland – but the survey shows that Spain is the best European destination for breaking down that barrier.

Visitors to Spain are not confined to beaches and tapas bars – more and more businesses are now flocking to Spain’s conference centres.

The country now holds third place in sector rankings of the most popular destinations for hosting international business meetings, according to Iberian information website Spain.info.

More than 50 conferences centres are located in Spain’s major cities, making the country a great place to organise well-structured business meetings as well as to enjoy the local climate, food and culture.

Barcelona is Spain’s leading business centre, with the Mediterranean city reported to have hosted 103 conferences last year, making it the fourth most popular city in the world for company conferences.

Spain.info highlighted the range of choice making Spain so popular: "From the main urban centres to smaller, quieter towns and cities, the huge variety that exists in Spain means you can find the perfect setting for the event or meeting you want to organise."

The site also praised hotel capacity, representing "a wide range of some of the finest 4 and 5 star accommodation in the world, with close to 350,000 beds available".

Equally important, however, may be the growing attraction of Spain as a dynamic business zone, a trend evidenced by the recent decision of UK printing company Fespa to select an Iberian location for its conference.

Describing the choice, Marcus Timson, Fespa communications director, said: "Spain is an incredibly important and fast-growing market."

Daily newspaper Down Under, the Australian News, has interviewed a highly successful businessman who made Spanish property the launch-pad for his rise.

Now a leading Australian real estate agent as well as a qualified nurse, Tim Scott told the newspaper how he went from washing cars to making profitable investments.

"The best investment decision I have ever made had two parts: number one was purchasing property in Spain before the recent property boom," said Mr Scott.

"At the peak of the boom, house prices were consistently rising by more than 30 per cent per year," he added, telling the Australian News that he eventually sold the properties for a large profit.

Spanish properties provided Mr Scott with strong returns, the lucrative proceeds of which he could use to make riskier but ultimately profitable surges into retail investment and later real estate.

The Australian businessman told the newspaper that he continued to hold properties in Europe, in Ireland as well as Spain, showing that Iberian property investments are still popular with the best business minds.