Press Release 24/01/2023

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. Except hotels. December 2022

In 2022, the number of visitors for rural accommodation in the Basque Country was 36.3% higher than in 2021 and for tourist apartments it was up 77.0%

The year-on-year increase in the number of overnight stays by people from abroad reached 190.8% for rural accommodation and 122.0% for tourist apartments

In 2022, rural accommodation in the Basque Country saw significant improvement in occupancy variables compared to 2021. With 168,958 visitors and 434,037 overnight stays, the year-on-year increases were 36.3% and 24.4%, respectively, according to Eustat data.

Bizkaia was the province with the highest annual growth in 2022, both in terms of the number of visitors, 51.2%, and the number of overnight stays, 32.2%. In Gipuzkoa, visitor numbers increased by 30.9% and overnight stays were up 21.9%. In Álava, the number of visitors and overnight stays in 2022 as a whole rose by 29.1% and 19.4% respectively, compared to the previous year.

Foreign visitors accounted for 21.6% of total visitor numbers at this type of establishment in the Basque Country in 2022, following an increase of 187.9% in respect of 2021.

The average length of stay at rural accommodation in the Basque Country was 2.57 days in 2022, below the 2.81 days registered in 2021. The occupancy rate rose to 27.3% in the case of beds and 31.3% for that of rooms. In relation to the occupancy rates observed at rural accommodation in the Basque Country in 2021, there was an increase of 4.2 and 4.8 percentage points respectively.

The 2022 annual balance for tourist apartments in the Basque Country also saw significant improvement with regard to 2021. With a total of 141,789 visitors and 536,084 overnight stays for the year as a whole, the year-on-year increases in relation to 2021 stood at 77.0% and 49.2%, respectively.

At the provincial level, both the number of visitors and overnight stays recorded in 2022 as a whole increased compared to those recorded in 2021, albeit to varying degrees. Total visitor numbers at tourist apartments in Bizkaia doubled compared to the previous year, while they rose by 42.9% in Gipuzkoa and 51.8% in Álava. Likewise, growth in the number of overnight stays stood at 83.0% in Bizkaia, 37.6% in Gipuzkoa and, lastly, 21.0% in Álava.

People from abroad accounted for 32.7% of the total number of visitors registered at this type of establishment in the Basque Country in 2022. This percentage was higher than the 19.4% they represented in 2021, due to a rise of 198.2% in this type of traveller over the last year.

In 2022, bed and apartment occupancy rates surpassed those obtained in 2021 by 7.9 and 11.4 percentage points, standing at 36.0% and 62.9%, respectively.

December 2022

In December 2022, the increase in visitor numbers at rural accommodation in the Basque Country compared to the same month of the previous year was 55.7%, reaching a total value of 13,094. Overnight stays were up 7.2% in December 2022 in year-on-year terms, rising to 28,316.

Visitors from abroad accounted for 11.2% of the total, following an increase in respect of December 2021 of 93.6%. In the case of overnight stays by people from abroad, there was year-on-year growth of 53.2% in December 2022.

By province, the year-on-year increases in visitor numbers in December 2022 was 60.0% in Gipuzkoa, with 6,538 visitors, 52.1% in Bizkaia, with 3,300 visitors, and 51.1% in Álava, with 3,256 visitors. Overnight stays performed differently, rising by 27.1% in Álava and 10.2% in Bizkaia, while in Gipuzkoa they were down 1.9%.

The average length of stay in the Basque Country at this type of establishment was 2.16 days in December, a figure below the average of 3.14 days observed in the same month of 2021.

Bed and room occupancy rates experienced a year-on-year increase of 1.7 and 2.4 percentage points respectively, the bed occupancy rate standing at 22.1% and that for rooms at 26.2%.

As regards tourist apartments, in December 2022 visitor numbers and overnight stays totalled 10,717 and 45,395, respectively. In relation to December of the previous year, the number of visitors rose by 39.5% and overnight stays were up 29.0%.

The number of visitors from abroad represented 19.7% of the total number of visitors and 26.2% of overnight stays at tourist apartments in the Basque Country, following year-on-year increases of 28.3% and 25.4%, respectively.

The average length of stay was 4.24 days in December 2022, below that obtained in December 2021, which stood at 4.58 days.

At the provincial level, the average length of stay in December 2022 stood at 2.57 days in Bizkaia, 6.56 days in Álava and 8.65 days in Gipuzkoa.

The bed occupancy rate at the Basque Country level reached 33.0% and the apartment occupancy rate was 59.2%. This represented an increase of 2.0 percentage points for the former and a decrease of 2.2 points for the latter indicator.

Informative note

The response rate of the Survey on Tourist Establishments in December 2022 was 69.9% for Rural Accommodation and 77.0% for Tourist Apartments.

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: Tel.: 945 01 75 62