According to Spain’s official statistician, the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, the Spanish hotel industry is continuing to grow at an impressive pace, even after a decade of significant improvement.
In May, Spain welcomed 10.3 million international visitors and guests, a 9.5% increase year over year, according to INE data. Across the first five months of the year, 36.8 million visitors came to Spain. In May, spending by international tourists increased 10.9% to approximately €13.5 billion ($15.45 billion), with average daily spend increasing by 1.7% to €214 ($244.91).
Even more noteworthy for hoteliers is across those first five months, hotel bookings increased 5% to 7.1 million room nights and guests spend increased 7.8% to €50.28 billion, beating the pace of visitation increases.
According to CoStar data, Spain's hotel occupancy increased 1.6% to 79.8% in May, average daily rate increased 4.7% to €175.32 and revenuer per available room increased 6.3% to €139.99.
In that period, the Andalucian city of Málaga showed the highest ADR uptick, increasing 5.7% to €179.51. Its RevPAR increased 3.4% to €162.79, despite its occupancy decreasing by 2.2% to 85.8%.
Madrid and Barcelona both saw a full sweep of metric increases for the month.
Madrid posted an occupancy increase of 0.7% to 84.9%, an ADR increase of 2% to €199.49 and a RevPAR increase 2.7% to €172.62. Barcelona posted an occupancy increase of 3.7% to 87.5%, an ADR increase of 0.9% to €228.83 and a RevPAR increase of 4.5% to €200.18.
The top three feeder markets to Spain were the United Kingdom with 7 million visitors, up 3.6% year over year; France with 4.6 million visitors, up 1.5%; and Germany at 4.5 million, up 0.3%.