Destination Canaries - 01.08.2008

Canary is the preferred destination for apartments

Overnight stays in tourist accommodation (apartments, camping accommodations and rural tourism) exceeded 9.4 million in June, up 3 percent less than the same month last year, and the Canaries is the preferred destination.

During the first half of the year, overnight stays also suffered a decline of 1.2 percent over the same month last year, according to data published today by the National Institute of Statistics.

As for prices, the three hotel categories recorded increases in June, from 1.9 percent in apartments, from 4.4 percent in campsite and a 3.9 per cent in rural tourism accommodations.

In June, the decline in overnight stays in such establishments extrahoteleros occurs both among residents that have fallen by 2 percent, and among non-residents, with a fall of 3.5 per cent

Overnight stays in apartments exceeded 6.1 million in June, representing a decrease of 4.3 percent over the same month last year, with decreases both among residents, whose rate interannual low 6.5 per cent, and among non-residents, with a fall of 3.6 percent.

Overnight stays by non-residents account for 75.9 percent of the total and the United Kingdom, the largest market issuer, with more than two million overnight stays registered a fall of 4.2 percent over June last year, followed by the market German, who also fell by 18.8 percent.

Canary is the preferred destination in apartments, followed by the Balearics.

For campsites, statistics exceeded 2.7 million overnight stays in June, representing a decrease of 1.5 per cent and 43.7 per cent of placements are made by non-residents, led by Holland, which is the main market leader, followed by the British.

Catalonia is the preferred destination with 1.5 million overnight stays, 2.8 percent less than in June 2007, followed by Valencia, which increased by 8.1 per cent.

In rural accommodation, overnight stays exceeding 554,000 in June, an increase of 4.4 percent, both residents rising by 5.2 percent as non-residents, with a rise of 1.6 percent.

Castilla y Leon is the preferred destination, with more than 96,400 overnight stays, 5.7 percent more than in June 2007, followed by Catalonia, with 82,225, a 23.7 per cent more.

    

The expenditure of foreign tourists rose by 5% in first half

Spending by foreign tourists in Spain during the first six months of the year reached 22,074 million euros, 5 percent more than in the same period of 2007, according to the Tourism Expenditure Survey (Egatur) broadcast by the Ministry of Industry.

The average expenditure during their stay increased by 2.4 percent and stood at 849 euros per tourist, while the average daily expenditure reached 93 euros, 0.7 percent more than during the previous year.

In this semester in Spain tourists stayed an average of 9.1 nights, 1.8 percent more than the same period last year.

Tourists non-residents in Spain in June conducted a total expenditure of 5.031 million, representing a minimal decline of 0.5 percent over the same month of 2007.

During that month the average expenditure per person amounted to 898 euros, and remained practically stable, while the daily fell by 0.7 percent to stand at 94 euros per day, with an average stay of 9.6 days.

As for the type of accommodation, the average expenditure of tourists staying in hotels in these six months increased by 5.1 percent, while those who used hotel accommodation rose by 4.8 percent.

The 69.8 percent of tourists who travelled to Spain, did so without having hired a package tour, which represents an increase of 9.2 percent of spending.

By nationality, tourists from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries are major spenders, contrasting with those from Italy, whose spending fell by 3.8 percent.

For destinations Canary Islands, Catalonia, Andalucia and the Community of Madrid were receiving the bulk of total spending of foreign tourists in these six months.