Press Release 23/03/2021

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. HOTELS. February 2021

In February 2021, occupancy of hotel establishments in the Basque Country continued to fall by around 75% in year-on-year terms

42.2% of hotel establishments had no business on any day in February 2021

In February 2021, there were 94,908 overnight stays in hotel establishments in the Basque Country, down 74.5% on February 2020, according to data prepared by Eustat. The year-on-year downturn in visitor numbers stood at 76.5%, with 48,531 visitors in February 2021.

At the provincial level, Álava recorded a 71.8% drop in visitor numbers and 64.8% in overnight stays in February 2021 compared to February 2020. In Bizkaia, visitor numbers fell by 74.6% and overnight stays were down 73.4%. In the case of Gipuzkoa, the drops in visitor numbers and overnight stays in February 2021 stood at 80.5% and 79.5%, respectively.

The falls both in visitor numbers and in overnight stays were more pronounced in the case of people habitually residing abroad, at 88.2% and 86.0%, respectively. In the case of visitors and overnight stays of people from the rest of Spain, the year-on-year decreases were 71.1% and 68.8%.

Compared to the previous month, January 2021, the number of visitors to the Basque Country as a whole fell by 650 in absolute figures in February, whereas the number of overnight stays increased by 5,821.

The average length of stay increased compared to February of the previous year, going from 1.80 days last January to 1.96 this February. In Gipuzkoa, it was up from 1.76 days in February 2020 to 1.85 days in February 2021, and in Bizkaia it increased from 1.83 days to 1.91 days. Álava saw a greater increase from an average stay of 1.85 days in February 2020 to 2.31 in February this year.

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 continues to be high. In February 2021, 42.2% of hotel establishments remained closed for the entire month, 27.1 percentage points more than in February 2020 and 25.5 more than in February 2019. In Gipuzkoa, 46.0% of establishments had no business in February 2021, in Álava the figure was 42.1% and in Bizkaia 37.2%.

The bed and room occupation rates of hotel establishments with business in February followed a downward trend in year-on-year terms. There was a drop of 29.6 percentage points in the bed occupancy rate and 34.3 in the room occupancy rate.

By province, Gipuzkoa saw the largest decreases both in the case of bed occupancy, which was down 34.4 percentage points on February 2020, and in room occupancy, which fell by 38.6 percentage points in year-on-year terms. The provincial capital that suffered the most in February was San Sebastián, with falls in the bed and room occupancy rates of 39.1 and 43.0 percentage points respectively.

The profitability indicators of the sector, despite a moderate yet varying performance in the ADR (average daily rate) by province, continued to highlight the effect of the current health crisis on the hotel sector. In February, the RevPAR (revenue per available room) fell in the Basque Country by 59.2% in year-on-year terms, to €16.37. It fell by 47.3% in Álava, 59.3% in Bizkaia and 63.3% in Gipuzkoa. By provincial capitals, there were drops of 41.7% in Vitoria-Gasteiz, 66.7% in Bilbao and, lastly, 66.6% in San Sebastián.

Informative note

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 97.6%, 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