The rise in prices has not slowed down the activity of the tourism sector, much less in the middle of the high season. Between January and July, stays in Spanish hotel establishments reached 192.6 million, slightly exceeding those registered in the same period of 2019, before the outbreak of a Covid pandemic that forced the activity to stop dead. In the seventh month of the year alone, overnight stays reached 43.1 million, also above those registered both last year (+2.5%) and before the health crisis. They did so with prices rising 6.2%.
It is, however, the smallest increase in the cost of rooms that travelers have had to face so far this year, since they became more expensive by 8% in June, more than 9% in May and April and above 10% since January. The stays of national travelers exceeded 15.3 million, while those of international tourists, with the United Kingdom and Germany in the lead, stood at over 27.7 million and came to account for more than 64% of the total .
The former opted for Andalusia, Catalonia and the Valencian Community as their main holiday destinations, while the latter -foreign tourists- mainly opted for the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and the Canary Islands. Travelers from the United Kingdom and Germany concentrated 25.5% and 16.6%, respectively, of the total overnight stays of non-residents in July.
Those of travelers from France, the Netherlands and Italy accounted for 8.6%, 4.8% and 4.4% of the total, respectively. In July it was the Balearic Islands that led the occupancy by beds in the summer season (87.5%), with the Canary Islands following behind (75.8%) and Palma-Calvìa as the specific area that reached the highest occupancy by beds (90.2%), while the points with the most overnight stays are Barcelona and Madrid.
The data from the Tourism Hotel Situation survey published this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) confirm that hotels managed to cover 70.2% of the rooms offered in July, with an annual increase of 1.3%. The establishments managed to raise the average daily billing for each occupied room (ADR) to 128.8 euros, which represents an increase of 6.3% compared to the same month a year earlier. The average daily revenue per available room (RevPAR), which depends on the occupancy registered in hotel establishments, reached 96.5 euros, increasing by 7.5%.
