Press release 27/07/2020

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

In June 2020 the tourist accommodation sector in the Basque Country continued to recover, although the drop in visitors and overnight stays exceeded 82%

The number of establishments with some activity in June rose to 730, around 82% more than in May and 63.4% of the total, taking in a total of 115,692 overnight stays, double that of May 2020

Order SND/399/2020, of 9 May, established the limitations and conditions by which hotels and tourist establishments that suspended opening to the public by virtue of Order SND7257/2020, of 19 March, may proceed to reopen. From this point onwards there has been a gradual reopening of establishments and this trend has continued throughout June.

A total of 730 establishments were offering accommodation in June 2020 in the Basque Country as a whole, following the almost total interruption of activity imposed as a consequence of the exceptional measures adopted in order to combat COVID-19 during April (109 open establishments open) and, very restricted, in May (400 open establishments).

The impact of the measures on the number of closed establishments in June diminished in relation to the previous months. Accordingly, in June 2020, closure for the entire month affected 417 establishments, down 44% on the 745 establishments that were closed in May and 60% on the 1,037 establishments that closed for the entire month of April. However, the comparison with the same month of 2019 reveals the prolongation of the effects on the sector: in 2019 only 88 establishments remained closed for differing reasons in June, that is, almost five times fewer than in June 2020.

The situation was similar in the three provinces: Álava went from 63 establishments open at some point in May to 130 in June; in the case of Bizkaia, the 148 establishments open in May rose to 254 in June; and in Gipuzkoa the number of open establishments increased from 189 the previous month to 346.

In hotels, rural accommodation and apartments as a whole, there were 55,586 visitors in June 2020, which was a decrease of 82.8% compared to the same month of the previous year. 41.4% of the total number of visitors to the Basque Country were concentrated in Bizkaia, and total visitor numbers dropped by 84.2%. In Gipuzkoa, which accumulated 41.2% of visitors to the Basque Country, there was a decrease of 83.1% and in Álava, with 17.4% of visitors, there was a fall of 77.2%.

Overnight stays in all establishments analysed were also down 82.2% in June 2020 compared to June 2019, at a rate of 83.5% in Bizkaia, 83.9% in Gipuzkoa and 71.5% in Álava.

Despite these figures, the improvement in respect of the previous month, May, is significant; visitor numbers this month were almost five times higher than the 9,714 visitors registered in May, whilst overnight stays easily doubled, going from 42,919 in May to 115,692 in June 2020.

Tourist apartments

In the case of tourist apartments, 73 establishments registered some form of activity at some point in June, compared to the 45 that were open in May 2020. By contrast, a total of 28 establishments remained closed during the entire period when in the same month of 2019 only 4 apartments closed.

By province, establishments were opening at a similar rhythm. Álava went from 13 establishments with activity in May to 16 in June; Bizkaia rose from 14 to 26; and, finally, there were 31 establishments open in Gipuzkoa in June when in May there were 18.

The number of visitors registered in tourist apartments, in the Basque Country as a whole, stood at 2,854 people for the month of June as a whole, a figure that in the same month of 2019 reached a level of 9,346. Corresponding to these visitors were a total of 11,022 overnight stays, 62.5% down on the 29,374 overnight stays in June 2019. In the previous month, May 2020, visitor numbers did not even reach a thousand (954) and the number of overnight stays stood at only 7,869 people.

By province, Álava recorded 630 visitors and 4,466 overnight stays, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa 1,340 visitors and 3,746 overnight stays and Gipuzkoa 883 visitors and 2,810 overnight stays.

92.7% of clients staying in this type of accommodation were from within Spain, with 7.3% coming from abroad. Compared to June 2019, in the total number of overnight stays foreign tourism fell by 81.7% and Spanish tourism was down 51.1%.

The average length of stay in this type of establishment increased from 3.14 days in June 2019 to 3.86 in June 2020. At a provincial level these figures also increased in respect of the same month of the previous year: rising from 6.82 to 7.08 days in Álava; 2.48 to 2.80 in Bizkaia; and from 2.89 to 3.18 days in Gipuzkoa.

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 had a direct impact on the usual activity of tourist establishments. The closure was practically total until the publication of Order SND/399/2020, of 9 May, establishing the conditions for gradual limited opening.

Following the end of the state of alarm on 21 June and with the limitations and prior conditions established via the order of 9 May (SDN/399/2020) for the reopening to the public of hotels and tourist establishments in general, the activity of this sector progressively increased during the month of June.

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 this current crisis on this sector to be quantified.

The distribution in June is once again the traditional type, incorporating the statistical tables and databank, although with the restrictions derived from statistical secrecy.

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