Press Release 22/08/2025

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. Except hotels. July 2025

Overnight stays in rural accommodation in the Basque Country in July 2025 rose by 3.7% and they were up 22.1% in tourist apartments, however they fell by 10.8% in tourist hostels

The bed occupancy rate in the three types of establishments exceeded 50.0% in July 2025

In July 2025, visitor numbers in rural accommodation in the Basque Country fell by 1.6% compared to the same month of the previous year, while overnight stays rose by 3.7%, according to Eustat data. With these year-on-year variations, in July the number of visitors reached 23,652 and the number of overnight stays stood at 76,044.

After rising by 11.0% in relation to July of the previous year, visitors from abroad accounted for 35.7% of the total number of visitors in rural accommodation in the Basque Country. As regards overnight stays, those by visitors from abroad represented 35.6% of the total, following an increase of 27.3% compared to July 2024.

By province, visitor numbers in July 2025 increased by 2.6% in Álava, whereas in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa they were down by 1.7% and 2.9%, respectively. Regarding overnight stays, these increased by 7.5% in Gipuzkoa, and were down 0.3% in Álava and 1.3% in Bizkaia.

The average length of stay (1) in this type of establishment in the Basque Country was 3.22 days during July, a figure slightly higher than the average length of stay of 3.05 days observed in July 2024.

Bed and room occupancy rates experienced a year-on-year increase of 1.9 and 2.7 percentage points respectively, the bed occupancy rate standing at 52.6% and that of rooms at 58.7%.

As regards tourist apartments (2), in July 2025 there were a total of 35,436 visitors, resulting in 97,610 overnight stays. Compared to July of the previous year, there was a 32.3% increase in the case of visitor numbers and 22.1% in that of overnight stays.

Visitors from abroad accounted for 50.1% of the total number of visitors and 49.3% of the total number of overnight stays in tourist apartments in the Basque Country, after registering year-on-year increases of 35.0% and 25.1%, respectively, during July 2025.

The average length of stay in tourist apartments in the Basque Country was 2.75 days in July 2025, below that obtained in July 2024, which stood at 2.99 days. The average length of stay in this type of establishment was 10.17 days in Álava, 3.41 days in Gipuzkoa and 2.08 days in Bizkaia.

The bed occupancy rate in the Basque Country reached 52.0%, following a loss of 0.5 percentage points compared to July 2024 . The apartment occupancy rate increased by 21.1 percentage points to stand at 83.5%.

In respect of tourist hostels in the Basque Country, in July 2025 there was a year-on-year decrease of 8.9% in visitor numbers, to stand at a total of 29,618 visitors who generated a total of 59,882 overnight stays. 31,853 overnight stays were registered in Bizkaia, 25,806 in Gipuzkoa and lastly, in Álava, the number of overnight stays was 2,223.

The average length of stay in this type of accommodation was 2.02 days in the Basque Country as a whole and the bed occupancy rate, following a year-on-year decrease of 7.9 percentage points, reached 53.4%.

Cumulative data (January - July 2025)

For 2025 to date in rural accommodation in the Basque Country there were 99,085 visitors and 243,909 overnight stays; 5.1% and 6.0% higher than the figures for the same cumulative period in 2024. The average length of stay was 2.46 days, similar to the 2.44 days of the previous year. As regards the bed occupancy rate, it stood at 28.8% compared to 26.6% in the same comparative period of 2024. The room occupancy rate was also over 31.1% in 2024, standing at 33.9% in the first seven months of 2025.

In relation to tourist apartments, in the cumulative period until July there were 157,284 visitors, resulting in 461,471 overnight stays; this was an increase in respect of the same period of 2024 of 36.9% in visitor numbers and 18.8% in overnight stays. The average length of stay was 2.93 days in the first seven months of 2025, compared to 3.38 in the same period of 2024. The occupancy rate reached 38.7% for beds and 69.4% for rooms, 0.4 and 5.6 percentage points higher than in the equivalent period of 2024.

As regards tourist hostels, in 2025 to date, they have accumulated 142,486 visits and 259,018 overnight stays, following decreases of 0.1% in the case of visitor numbers and 3.8% in that of overnight stays, compared with the same seven months of 2024. The average stay was 1.82 days, down from 1.89 days the previous year. The bed occupancy rate was 37.4%, down 2.0 percentage points on that obtained during the same cumulative period of 2024.

Note:

The response rate for the Survey on Tourist Establishments this month was 85.0% for Rural Accommodation, 73.6% for Tourist Apartments and 75.6% for Tourist Hostels. Eustat would like to thank all establishments that participated in this survey for their effort.

(1) The average length of stay refers to the number of days that, on average, travellers remain in each of the establishments where they stay overnight, and not the total length of their stay in the Basque Country..

(2) Each of the accommodation units offered under a business operating unit, managed under the block or combined mode, is referred to as a tourist apartment. Private dwellings offered, marketed or temporarily relinquished for reasons of tourism are not included under the heading of dwellings for tourism use.

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