Spanish hoteliers had a busy March.
March was another good month in terms of tourist numbers, and another good month for the country’s hoteliers.
Overnight stays increased in March by 17.6%, when compared to the same month last year.
Over 21 million overnight stays were registered across the country, making March the third consecutive month to see increases.
When looking at the first quarter of the year the increase is 13.3% over the last quarter of 2015.
Who, where?
Overnight stays by Spanish resident travellers increased by 22.2% while travellers’ resident outside Spain increased by 14.4%. The average length of stay was 3.1 nights, an increase of 0.8% when compared to March 2015.
The list of the most popular destinations shows the usual suspects with Catalonia topping the chart with a 26.9% increase in overnight stays. Valencia was next with a 22.9% increase, while travellers staying overnight in Andalusia increased 21.1%. Madrid showed a smaller increase of just 8.4%, compared to March last year.
For non-resident travellers the Canary Islands were the stand-out favourite accounting for a massive 43.3% of all overnight stays during March, a 10.9% increase over last year. The second most popular with non-resident travellers was Catalonia which accounted for 15.7% of the total, registering growth of 15.9%, while Andalusia attracted 13.8% of all non-resident travellers, representing an increase of 22.9%.
Traveller Origin
By country of origin, the UK and Germany accounted for almost half of all non-resident travellers with 24% and 23.8% respectively. The UK market grew by 21.2% while the German market increased 12.2% over the same period in 2015.
The numbers of French, Italian and Swedish travellers also increased by 11.2%, 23.2% and 15%, respectively.
Cost per Night
The annual rate of the Hotel Price Index stood at 4.6% at the end of March, 2.3 points below the previous month, and 0.7 points lower than the same period in the previous year.
Hotel costs per night increased across the country with only a few areas recording a fall in prices. In Andalusia the average rate per night increased 9.4%, while the Canary Islands and Madrid also saw healthy growth of 7.1% and 5.8% respectively. Catalonia was one of the few to register a decrease in prices with a 5.2% fall.
Average price increases were registered across all categories of hotels. In two gold star establishments costs increased 6.3%, while three-gold-star accommodations increased by 4.2%, with five-gold-star hotels increased their costs by an average of 2.8%.
Per occupied room, the average daily turnover for the hotel sector was 75.5 Euros during March, representing an increase of 2% over last year.
Per available room, the average daily revenue per room was 45.1 Euros, an increase of 9.2%.
