Record number of overnight stays: Despite the protests, more and more hotel guests in Spain

Spain achieved a record number of hotel overnight stays in the first half of 2024, despite another sharp increase in room prices. Between January 1 and June 30, the number of overnight stays rose by 7.5 percent to 160.6 million compared to the same period last year, the statistics office INE announced. The average room price in June 2024 was around eight percent higher than in the same month last year. Hotels generated a turnover of just over 122 euros per occupied room in June, it said.

The number of visitors in Spain had been rising rapidly for many years before the corona pandemic brought a pause. Since 2022, however, one record has been chasing the next. The new record number of overnight stays was again primarily due to hotel guests from abroad, with an increase of 11.2 percent. The number of overnight stays by domestic customers, on the other hand, only increased by 0.9 percent in the first half of the year.

Only recently, the INE reported an increase in foreign visitor numbers of 13.6 percent to a new record of over 33.2 million for the first five months of the year. With just over 4.4 million, the Germans were in third place behind the British (just over 6.3 million) and almost on a par with the French.

The popular holiday destination has recently hit the headlines because of the increasingly frequent demonstrations against mass tourism. Most recently, thousands took to the streets in Mallorca on Sunday to protest against the excesses. A day later, the regional government promised “bold measures” to solve the various problems for which mass tourism is held partly responsible. No details were given in Palma. The anger is also growing in other Spanish holiday hotspots such as Barcelona, ​​Málaga and the Canary Islands. The housing shortage in particular, but also traffic jams, noise and dirt are getting on the nerves of the locals.