Press release 23/02/2021

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. HOTELS. JANUARY 2021

In January, occupancy of hotel establishments in the Basque Country continued to fall by more than 70% in year-on-year terms

42.7% of hotel establishments remained closed every day in January 2021, exceeding the percentage observed in December 2020 by 1.6 percentage points

In January 2021, there were 89,087 overnight stays in hotel establishments in the Basque Country, down 72.2% on January 2020. The year-on-year downturn in visitor numbers stood at 71.6%, with 49,181 visitors in January 2021, according to Eustat data.

At the provincial level, Álava recorded a 63.3% drop in visitor numbers and 62.1% in overnight stays in January 2021 compared to January 2020. In the case of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, the year-on-year decreases were closer to the Basque Country average. In Bizkaia, visitor numbers fell by 73.8% and overnight stays were down 73.1%. Similarly, in Gipuzkoa the drops in visitor numbers and overnight stays in January 2021 compared to the same month of the previous year were 71.8% and 74.8%, respectively.

The falls both in visitor numbers and in overnight stays were more pronounced in the case of visitors habitually residing abroad, at 82.8% and 83.1%, respectively. In the case of the number of visitors and overnight stays of people from within Spain, the figures were more moderate, with a drop in visitor numbers of 65.9% and in overnight stays of 66.3% compared to January 2020.

With respect to the previous month, December 2020, the number of visitors and overnight stays in the Basque Country as a whole increased slightly in absolute terms: 7,353 visitors and 10,301 overnight stays more in January 2021 than in December 2020.

The average length of stay also fell compared to January of the previous year, going from 1.85 days last January to 1.81 this January. At the provincial level, there was a downward trend in Gipuzkoa, where it fell from 1.84 days in January 2020 to 1.65 days in January 2021. Bizkaia and Álava, on the other hand, saw a slight increase. In the case of Bizkaia, it went from 1.84 days in January 2020 to 1.89 days in January 2021, and in Álava it rose from 1.91 days in January of last year to 1.97 in January of this year.

The variation in the percentage of hotel establishments closed every day of the month shows the impact on the hotel sector of the restrictions adopted to tackle COVID-19 since the end of March 2020. Since April 2020, when 91.0% of establishments were closed during the toughest restrictions imposed in this pandemic, it has been changing depending on the varying levels of mobility in recent months. After the initial impact, establishments continued to open until the summer of 2020, when around 15% of hotels remained closed. From then, over the months that followed, hotel establishments steadily closed until reaching the current 42.7% level in January 2021.

The occupancy rate, calculated in terms of the number of beds and rooms available at all hotel establishments open in January, fell by 24.4 and 28.6 percentage points respectively compared to January 2020, with the bed occupancy rate standing at 14.0% and the room occupancy rate at 20.0%. By province, Gipuzkoa saw the largest decreases both in the case of bed occupancy, which was down 27.7 percentage points on January 2020, and in room occupancy, which fell by 31.9 percentage points in year-on-year terms. The provincial capital that suffered the most in January was San Sebastián, with falls in the bed and room occupancy rates of 33.6 and 37.4 percentage points respectively.

The profitability indicators also highlight the effect of the health crisis on the hotel sector. The ADR, or applied average daily rate, was €59.10 in January 2021, a drop of 13.8% compared to January 2020. At the provincial level, the sharpest decrease was in Bizkaia, with 18.0%. As for the provincial capitals, Bilbao stood out the most with a fall of 16.4%. San Sebastián had the highest value on this scale, at €75.70.

The RevPAR, or revenue per available room, decreased by 64.5% for the Basque Country as a whole, to €11.80. Moving to the provincial level, the registered year-on-year decreases were 50.7% in Álava, 65.8% in Bizkaia and 67.4% in Gipuzkoa. By provincial capitals, there were drops of 46.3% in Vitoria-Gasteiz, 70.4% in Bilbao and, lastly, 70.7% in San Sebastián.

Informative note

From January 2021, the data from this survey (ETR) will be published in two parts. First, data on hotel establishments (or ETR_H) will be published, and then the data for the other establishments included in the survey (or ETR_eH), which are currently Rural Accommodation – rural tourism establishments and country cottages – and Tourist Apartments of all categories, will be published a few days later.

Eustat would once again like to thank all the establishments that have collaborated with this survey for making this effort despite the extraordinary current circumstances. As a result, it has been possible to disseminate this information, with coverage of 96.5%, enabling the effects on this sector of the measures adopted in order to combat COVID-19 to be quantified.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62