Simon Hunter
WITH COVID-19 restrictions now a distant memory, the tourism sector in Spain is enjoying a bumper 2023. According to figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE), hotel stays were up 21% on the year before during the first four months of the year, and even exceeded the level seen in 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
The INE figures show that there were 28 million hotel stays in Spain in April, which is an 11.5% rise on the year before.
For January to April of this year, there were a total of 80.9 million hotel stays, representing the aforementioned 21% rise compared to 2022.
The major increase was thanks to foreign visits, which were up 16% in April compared to the year before for a total of 17.3 million. National tourism is holding steady, meanwhile, rising 5% to 10.7 million in the fourth month of the year compared to 2022.
The INE also reported that the preferred destinations for foreign visitors in this period were the Canary and Balearic Islands as well as Catalunya, while the domestic market preferred Andalusia, Catalunya and the Valencia region.
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