Overnight stays in non-hotel accommodation (apartments, campsites, rural tourism accommodation and hostels) reached 127.2 million in 2018, 2.6% less than last year according to provisional data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), compared to the 5.8% increase shown in the previous year.
Specifically, in 2018, a total of 25.4 million visitors chose to stay in this type of accommodation in Spain. Non-residents registered 77.7 million overnight stays last year, decreasing by 4.1% in comparison to the 49.4 million stays made by residents in Spain, which didn’t change.
Throughout 2018, 58% of the overnight stays were in tourist apartments, 31% in campsites, 9% in rural tourism accommodation, and the remaining 2% in hostels.
In December last year, the amount of registered overnight stays in non-hotel accommodations was 6.2 million, which implies a 1.7% decrease with respect to the same month of 2017. Out of this total, 3.5 million were overnight stays of European visitors (excluding Spain), and 2.2 million were Spanish residents.
Last month’s drop was the result of a 2.2% decline in overnight stays by non-residents, and a decrease of 0.5% in the number of residents. The average stay is at 5 overnight stays per visitor.
The Spanish collective tourist accommodation as a whole (including hotels) exceeded 467.4 million overnight stays in 2018, with a 0.8% decrease in comparison to 2017, and a total of 130.7 million visitors. The average stay decreased by 1.8% (3.6 overnight stays per visitor). In December, these increased by 1.4% (0.8% decrease in residents, and 2.9% increase in non-residents).
Out of the overnight stays registered during the year in collective accommodations in Spain, those occupied by residents rose by 0.4%, while those of non-residents dropped by 1.4%. In total, 73% of the stays were in hotels, and 27% were in non-hotel accommodations.
The main issuing markets in the group of official tourist accommodations were the British, with 26.8% of the total overnight stays by non-residents, followed by the German (19.3%) and the French (8.6%) markets.