Spain: Rural tourism is in good health in Catalonia and the rest of Spain

After recording a decrease rating in 2012 and 2013, visitors who stay in rural settlements grew by 23.9% in Catalonia in 2014 being Pyrenees and Costa Brava areas receiving more travelers Spain and recorded the most overnight stays of domestic residents.

After several years of decline in the number of travelers, overnight stays and average stay, rural tourism has been reactivated in 2015 in Spain, and especially in Catalonia. Almost 333,000 travelers visited rural tourism in Catalonia during 2014, representing an increase of 23.9% over the previous year. Terres de l’Ebre (56.8%), Pyrenees (40.2%) and Costa Daurada (39.5%) were the areas that registered the most significant growth.

Pirineus area is receiving more travelers, followed by the Costa Brava and the Catalunya Central. As regards the occupancy rate in rural tourism establishments of the Costa Brava (25.3%) maintains the leadership in 2014. 270,000 of the 333,000 travelers who received the rural tourism in 2014 (81%) they were resident in Catalonia; 18,000 (6%) were residents in the rest of Spain and 44,000 (13%) were foreigners.

In the whole of Spain, overnight stays in rural tourism have an annual increase of 10.6% in May, according to data released by the INE last June. The residents in Spain rose by 8.9% and 14.7% non-residents. In the rural tourism are concerned 13.7% of the seats, an increase of 9.8% compared to May 2014. The occupancy rate on weekends stands at 27.4%, with a increase of 18.2%.

For communities, Castilla y Leon is the preferred destination, with 111 595 overnight stays, 2.2% more than in May 2014. Catalonia is the second destination that received more travelers. Illes Balears reached the highest occupancy rate, with 49.3% of the available seats. By tourist area, the island of Mallorca is the main destination with 77 537 overnights. The islands of Ibiza and Formentera achieved the highest occupancy, with 50.3% of the positions offered.

Source: VangData