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INE: Overnight Hotel Stays Reached 46.4M In August

26 September 2016 – Expansión

Overnight stays rose by 3.8% and revenues increased by almost 9% in August 2016, boosted by visits from overseas tourists. Nevertheless, domestic demand only increased in Cataluña.

Although the summer season does not officially end until October, Spain’s hotels can already say with some satisfaction that the summer of 2016 has been one of the best of their lives. The average occupancy rate reached 79% in August, the best figure since analysis of this data first began back in 1999, according to a report published on Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In the eighth month of the year alone, 46.4 million overnight hotels stays were recorded, up by 3.8% compared with August last year, thanks to a 6.3% increase in stays by foreign tourists; overnight stays by Spanish tourists decreased by 0.3% YoY.

But it was not only a quantitative increase, given that establishments also increased their revenues. They obtained €79.57 for each available room, compared with €73.10 in August 2015. The Hotel Price Index (IPH) carried a lot of weight in that YoY increase of 8.8%. The IPH is prepared on the basis of prices that businessmen in the sector receive from all of their clients: households, companies, tour operators and travel agents. The IPH stood at 6.9% in August, which represents 1.9 points more than a year ago.

Over the last twelve months, revenues have increased by 5.2% on average, with the most acute increases being observed for three-star (9.01% YoY in August) and four-star accommodation (6.97%).

INE’s information reveals that overnight stays in July and August grew by 5.4% compared with the same two month period in 2015, thanks both to record levels of international tourists (9.6 million visited in July, up by 9.3%) as well as the gradual recovery of domestic demand. In this aggregated period, overnight stays by foreigners and Spaniards rose by 7.2% and 2.4%, respectively (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Yago González)

Translation: Carmel Drake