Major increase in hotel overnight stays in Catalonia during 2014

Madrid (ACN).- The Spanish Institute of Statistics (INE) recently released the figures for 2014 showing a substantial rise in the number of hotel overnight stays in Catalonia. The total amount of this type of stay was 50,018,636 in 2014, 1.5% more than last year. Catalan hotels received a total of 16,754,342 visitors, an increase of 3.4% over 2013. Overall, the Catalan tourism infrastructure welcomed 62% foreign residents (10.3 million) and 38% (6.3 million) visitors from Spain. 71.5% of the 50 million overnight stays were made by foreign residents (35.8 million stays), 8.1% more than in 2013, and 28.3% were residents from Spain (14.1 million stays), 0.9% less than last year. Catalonia’s occupation is higher than the average rate in Spain as its occupation rate is 56.2%, while that of Spain overall is 54.8%. 

Tourism in an important sector in Catalonia and one of the engines behind the economic recovery. December last can be seen as proof of this growth, as the number of overnight stays came to about 2 million (1,983,259), which represents 6.1% more than the same month in 2013 and the highest rate ever recorded for the month of December. Of those who stayed overnight in December, 56.8% were foreign residents (1.1 million), 5.6% more than the previous year, and 43.2% were Spanish residents (855,726), 6.7% more than in 2013. In terms of the number of visitors, more than 933,685 stayed in Catalan hotels in December 2014, 50.3% of which were Spanish residents (469,481), with the other 49.7% (464,205) being foreigners.

At Spanish level, most of those who stayed in hotels (67.6%) did so between May and October. Furthermore, tourists tend to concentrate in certain areas such as Mallorca (40.4 million overnight stays) and cities such as the Catalan capital (18.3 million visitors).