Press release 26/05/2020

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. TOURIST APARTMENTS AND OTHER TOURIST ACCOMMODATION. APRIL 2020

Hotels, rural accommodation and tourist apartments maintained only force majeure activity during April 2020 in the Basque Country

There were 21,381 overnight stays in the sector as a whole compared to the 603,142 observed in April 2019

Order SND/257/2020, of 19 March, declaring the suspension of the opening of tourist accommodation establishments to the public remained in force for the entire month of April. The activity of the sector was basically restricted to establishments defined as essential services according to Order TMA/277/2020, of 23 March and amended by Order TMA/305/2020, of 30 March.

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the hotel sector has been devastating. On the basis of the social use of this information, Eustat considers it particularly necessary at this time to make the information relating to hotel activity in April 2020 available to institutions and bodies, researchers and society in general.

However, it should be pointed out that this information is provisional given the exceptional circumstances in which it has been obtained and processed. For this reason, dissemination in April will be limited, for the time being, to this press release. The remaining products in this operation will be disseminated when they acquire the status of definitive.

Under no circumstances has the activity of medicalised establishments been considered. We have only counted establishments that remained partially or fully open for at least one day in the month for accommodating different types of essential personnel, taking in those persons who due to force majeure or situation of need required exceptional or urgent accommodation or for housing guests who, at the time the state of alarm was declared, were long-term or seasonal residents.

Any comparison made with data registered in April 2019, when 299,687 visitors and 603,142 overnight stays were recorded, shows the enormous effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the tourist accommodation sector in the Basque Country. There were only 2,273 visitors to establishments that opened at some point during April, and they stayed for a total of 21,381 nights.

At a provincial level, Álava registered 702 visitors and 6,985 overnight stays, in Bizkaia there were 614 visitors and 6,717 overnight stays and Gipuzkoa generated 957 visitors and 7,697 overnight stays.

Visitor numbers fell by 99.2% and overnights stays were down 96.5% compared to the same month of the previous year. The distribution of visitors by origin, in the Basque Country as a whole, was 87.6% from within Spain and 12.4% from abroad.

Tourist apartments

In the case of tourist apartments, only 362 establishments registered some form of activity at some point in April, compared to the 727 that were open in April 2019. By contrast, a total of 499 establishments remained closed during the entire period when in the same month of 2019 only 49 apartments closed.

The number of visitors registered in tourist apartments, n the Basque Country as a whole, stood at 576 people, with an average length of stay of 11.41 days, generating 6,570 overnight stays. In the same month of the previous year there were a total of 8,184 visitors and 26,730 overnight stays, with an average length of stay of 3.27 days.

By province, Álava recorded 59 visitors and 2,807 overnight stays, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa 409 visitors and 1,942 overnight stays and Gipuzkoa 108 visitors and 1,839 overnight stays. By province, differences were observed in the average lengths of stay, given that in Álava it was 30 days, while in Bizkaia it stood at 4.7 days and in Gipuzkoa it reached 17.03 days.

NOTE REGARDING THE EFFECT OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS ON THE SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS

Royal Decree 463/2020, of 14 March, declared a state of alarm in order to manage the health crisis caused by COVID-19.

The exceptional measures adopted subsequently have brought the usual activity of tourist establishments to a standstill during the whole of April. Therefore the impact on the April Survey on Tourist Establishments was absolute.

Due to this situation, obtaining the necessary information for compiling the Survey on Tourist Establishments required a greater degree of effort, by both the personnel dedicated to collecting and processing the information and, above all, the establishments surveyed.

Eustat would like to thank all the establishments that have collaborated in making this effort despite the extraordinary circumstances. As a result, it has been possible to disseminate this information, enabling the effects of the measures adopted on this sector 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