Press Release 22/07/2021

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. Hotels. June 2021

Clear recovery in hotel activity in June 2021 with increases of almost 50% in the number of visitors and overnight stays in the Basque Country

The percentage of hotel establishments without business on any day fell to 14.3% in June 2021

In June 2021, the number of visitors and overnight stays recorded at hotel establishments in the Basque Country rose to 172,095 and 309,532, respectively, according to Eustat data. Visitor numbers had therefore recovered by 44.2% and overnight stays by 47.7% since May 2021.

Movement restrictions have been variable after the state of emergency was decreed on 14 March 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. June 2020 saw a partial revival of this sector, but in no case did it reach the figures for June recorded in previous years. Hotel activity was reduced considerably (almost 40% of establishments remained closed in June 2020), and some of the statistical series were not published due to statistical secrecy safeguards and statistical quality criteria. For this reason, the year-on-year comparison with June 2020 is heavily conditioned and figures are generally compared with the previous month, May 2021.

In June 2021, Álava recorded 25,128 visitors and 47,265 overnight stays, 26.1% and 32.8% more than the previous month. In Bizkaia, visitor numbers increased by 33.1% and overnight stays were up 30.9% in June 2021, standing at 67,379 and 121,360, respectively. Lastly, in Gipuzkoa, visitor numbers and overnight stays stood at 79,588 and 140,907 in June 2021, following a month-on-month rise of 63.2% in visitor numbers and of 73.6% in overnight stays.

In June 2021, visitors from abroad accounted for 23.9% of all visitors, hence the proportion of visitors from the rest of Spain was 76.1%. In the case of overnight stays, people residing abroad accounted for 23.2% and people from the rest of Spain accounted for 76.8%. Both the number of visitors and overnight stays of people from abroad increased by 50.3% and 56.9%, respectively, compared to May.

Some differences were observed between the Provinces. In Álava, the number of visitors and overnight stays of people from abroad increased by 44.2% and 55.3%, respectively, compared to the previous month. The number of visitors rose by 57.0% and the number of overnight stays was up 53.3% in Bizkaia. Lastly, the increases compared to the previous month in Gipuzkoa were: 47.5% in the number of visitors from abroad and 59.8% in the number of overnight stays of people from abroad.

As has been indicated above, although hotel activity was progressively recovering in June 2020, almost 40% of hotels remained closed for the entire month. Therefore, compared to June 2020, there was a pronounced rise in visitor numbers of 261.0% and in overnight stays of 244.6% in the Basque country as a whole. In turn, overnight stays of people from abroad rose by 384.1%.

Continuing the year-on-year comparison, at the provincial level, Gipuzkoa recorded the highest figures, with a 312.0% increase in visitor numbers and a 298.8% increase in overnight stays, while Bizkaia saw increases of 233.5% for visitor numbers and 216.0% for overnight stays. Álava recorded an increase of 208.3% in visitor numbers and of 193.8% in overnight stays.

The average length of stay in the Basque Country during June stood at 1.80 days. In May, it was 1.76 days and in June 2020, 1.88 days. The average length of stay did not vary significantly depending on original place of residence: 1.75 days in the case of foreign visitors and 1.82 days in the case of people from the rest of Spain.

Bed and room occupancy rates of hotel establishments with business in June 2021 were higher than those observed in May, increasing both ratios by 9.1 percentage points compared to the figures obtained in May 2021.

The bed occupancy rate stood at 37.9% in Álava, 30.1% in Bizkaia and 40.3% in Gipuzkoa. The room occupancy rate was 47.0% in Álava, 38.9% in Bizkaia and 46.7% in Gipuzkoa.

The provincial capital with the highest bed occupancy rate was San Sebastián (43.0%), followed by Vitoria-Gasteiz (38.5%), while the rate stood at 31.4% in Bilbao. There was a similar trend in the room occupancy rate in the three provincial capitals.

A year ago (June 2020), the bed occupancy rate was 23.1% for the Basque Country, 23.8% for Bizkaia, 22.9% for Gipuzkoa and 22.2% for Àlava.

Profitability indicators of the sector also showed an upward trend. The average daily rate (ADR) was 86.43 euros in June, which was 26.3% more than the 68.43 euros observed in May. All provinces saw an increase in the ADR, standing at 97.87 euros in Gipuzkoa (116.66 euros in San Sebastián), 77.69 euros in Bizkaia (79.22 euros in Bilbao) and 77.58 euros in Álava (67.32 euros in Vitoria-Gasteiz).

The higher occupancy rate led to a 60.0% increase in the revenue per available room (RevPAR), going from 23.29 euros in May to 37.26 euros in June 2021 in the Basque Country.

Compared to June 2020, the ADR increased by 44.5% and the RevPar rose by 93.2%.

The variation in the percentage of hotel establishments closed every day of the month shows that the impact on the hotel sector of the restrictions adopted to tackle COVID-19 is gradually lessening. In June 2021, 14.3% of hotel establishments remained closed every day of the month, compared to 39.8% in June 2020. However, this figure has still not reached that recorded in June 2019, which was 5.9%.

At the provincial level, the variation in this recovery showed similar figures. 16% of hotel establishments in Álava still remain closed, with 15% of those in Bizkaia and 13.2% of those in Gipuzkoa in the same situation.

Note. The coverage of the ETR for Hotels in June was 89.9%. Eustat would like to thank all establishments that participated in this survey for their effort.

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