Catalonia sees a 2.5% increase in overnight hotel stays among foreigners during July

Barcelona (ACN).- On Friday, the Spanish Institute of Statistics (INE) released figures showing that Catalonia experienced an increase of 2.5% in the amount of hotel stays among foreigners during July, compared to the same month of 2012, representing 5.82 million visitors. In total, there were 7.4 million hotel stays in Catalonia during July. However, overnight stays among Spanish nationals in Catalonia decreased by 7.3%, with a total of 1.57 million stays. Catalonia accounts for 23.2% of total hotel stays among the foreign population in Spain, second only to the Balearic Islands which has 37.9%. With regards to hotel stays among the Spanish residents, Catalonia is the third most popular with 12.7%, behind Andalucía (25.4%) and Valencia (16%). Meanwhile the occupancy rate of hotel rooms in Catalonia was at 71.8% in July, a figure below the Balearic Islands (89.9%) and the Canary Islands (75.1%). For the whole of Spain, the average hotel occupancy rate was 65.3%. During June, Spanish hotels had 37.6 million overnights stays, an increase of 0.5% on 2012, with overnight stays among Spanish reduced by 1.4% and among the foreign population there was an increase of 1.4%.

The average visitor to Catalan hotels during July stayed for 3.72 nights, while the average stay for visitors in Spanish hotels as a whole was 3.91 nights – an increase of 0.4%. With regards to the nationality of foreign tourists in Catalonia, 26.4% of the overnight stays are British, followed by Germans with 23%. Russian visitors represent 7.3%, French – 6% and Dutch – 4.3%. The price of per night of hotels during July in Catalonia rose by 0.7% compared to the previous year. While in Spain as a whole, hotel prices increased by 1%.