Tourism has started the year surpassing records of 2019. Hotel overnight stays reached 28 million in April, in the middle of Easter, 11.5% more than in the same month last year, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The accumulated increase in the first four months of the year was 21%, up to 80.9 million overnight stays. In both cases, the figures are above those registered before the pandemic. Prices took a breather: in April they rose 9.3%, the smallest increase since December, although they have been rising for almost two years (since June 2021) without interruption.
The increase in overnight stays in April has been the lowest since the start of the sector’s recovery, which began in the second half of 2021, but it is due to the fact that the figures return to normal levels and no longer experience large fluctuations. The year 2022 started off weaker due to the effect of the Ómicron variant of the coronavirus, but it began to reactivate during Easter Week. The second half of the year was threatened by economic turmoil, but the data indicates that demand is holding up despite the effects of inflation on citizens’ purchasing power.
Foreign tourism is the one that is growing the most (16% in April, up to 17.3 million overnight stays), while national tourism is resisting (5% more, up to 10.7 million). The main destinations in April were the usual ones: the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands in the case of foreign visitors and Andalusia, Catalonia and the Valencian Community in the case of residents in Spain.
Hotels continue to recover profitability. The average daily billing for each occupied room was 104.9 euros in April, 8.8% more than in the same month of 2022. In April almost 60% of the places offered were covered, 7.4% more. The average stay fell 1.6% compared to April last year, to 2.9 overnight stays per traveller, the same as four years ago.
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