Over 19m tourists visit Catalonia in 2022, 8% fewer than in 2019

Over 19 million tourists visited Catalonia in 2022, according to provisional data from Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE).  

The exact figure of 19,108,486 tourists is 7.9% below that of 2019 (20,752,391), the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic.  

As for overnight stays, 53,126,116 were recorded last year, 8.78% less than three years ago (58,235,789). 

The INE said that Catalonia and Andalusia were the top holiday destinations in 2022 for people residing in Spain. 

Hotel prices in December 2022 in Catalonia were up 12.5% compared to the same month the previous year.  

A total of 1,088,054 tourists came to Catalonia in December, only 4% fewer than in 2019 (1,132,586). There were 2,429,390 overnight stays, 0.3% fewer than before the pandemic (2,434,638). 

Spain as a whole welcomed 102.6 million tourists during 2022, 94.4% compared to 2019. There were 20.7 million overnight stays, 93.5% compared to 2019. 

Overnight stays by people resident in Spain rose by 0.3% compared to before the pandemic, while those by non-residents were 10.1% lower. The United Kingdom and Germany were the top countries of origin for visitors from abroad. 

Catalonia's hotel occupancy of 57.5% was only surpassed in Spain by the Balearic Islands (74.2%) and the Canary Islands (68.1%). 

Podcast: Overtourism? 

The sharp influx of visitors to Barcelona following the pandemic has once again sparked mixed opinions among locals and within the city council. Listen to the podcast below to find out more.