Press Release 21/11/2025

SURVEY ON TOURIST ESTABLISHMENTS. Except hotels. October 2025

Overnight stays in rural accommodation in the Basque Country increased by 15.2% in October 2025, they rose by 19.4% in tourist apartments and 22.8% in hostels

The room occupancy rate reached 41.3% in hostels, 39.7% in tourist apartments and 27.2% in rural accommodation

Visitor numbers in rural accommodation in the Basque Country rose by 14.1% compared to the same month of the previous year and overnight stays increased by 15.2%, according to data prepared by Eustat. With these year-on-year variations, in October the number of visitors reached 17,755 and the number of overnight stays stood at 36,528.

Following an increase of 13.4% compared to the previous October, visitors from abroad accounted for 25.4% of the total number of visitors in Basque Country rural accommodation in October 2025. Meanwhile, as regards overnight stays, those by visitors from abroad represented 27.4% of the total, after observing an increase of 14.1% compared to October 2024.

By province, visitor numbers rose by 16.5% in Álava, 12.8% in Bizkaia and 13.6% in Gipuzkoa. In year on year terms, overnight stays increased by 13.9% in Álava and by 27.3 % in Gipuzkoa, while in Bizkaia they were down 2.5%.

The average length of stay in this type of establishment in the Basque Country was 2.06 days in October 2025, slightly higher than the 2.04 days average length of stay observed in the same month of the previous year(1).

The bed occupancy rate was 3.7 percentage points higher than that obtained in October 2024, standing at 27.2%. Meanwhile, the room occupancy rate saw a year-on-year increase of 3.8 percentage points, rising to 32.5% in October 2025.

With regards to tourist apartments, in October 2025 there was a total of 25,302 visitors, giving rise to 74,889 overnight stays. Comparing this data with that of the previous October, the increase reached 32.5% in the case of visitor numbers and 19.4% in that of overnight stays.

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(2).

Visitors from abroad accounted for 48.1% of the total number of visitors and 45.0% of the total number of overnight stays in tourist apartments in the Basque Country, after registering year-on-year increases of 50.6% and 25.6%, respectively, during October.

The average length of stay in tourist apartments was 2.96 days in October 2025, below that obtained in October 2024, which stood at 3.28 days for the Basque Country as a whole. The average length of stay in this type of establishment was 18.45 days in Álava, 5.21 days in Gipuzkoa and 2.03 days in Bizkaia.

The bed occupancy rate at the Basque Country level reached 39.7% in October 2025, up 1.5 percentage points on that observed in October 2024. Meanwhile, the apartment occupancy rate increased by 6.9 percentage points to stand at 75.7%.

As regards tourist hostels in the Basque Country, in October 2025, there was a year-on-year increase in visitor numbers of 19.2%, with a total of 26,774 visitors generating 45,138 overnight stays, 22.8% more than a year earlier. 15,193 visitors were recorded in Bizkaia, 10,530 in Gipuzkoa and lastly, in Álava, there were 1,052 visitors in this type of accommodation.

In October 2025, the average length of stay in tourist hostels in the Basque Country stood at 1.69 days, and the bed occupancy rate reached 41.3%, following a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percentage points.

Cumulative data (January- October 2025)

For 2025 to date, rural accommodation in the Basque Country attained 161,945 visitors and 425,330 overnight stays; 5.9% and 6.1% more than those obtained for the same cumulative period of 2024. The average length of stay stood at 2.63 days, similar to the 2.62 days of the previous year. The bed occupancy rate reached 33.7%, compared to the 31.3% obtained in the same cumulative period of 2024. The room occupancy rate also exceeded the 36.2% obtained in 2024, standing at 39.0% for these ten months of 2025.

As regards tourist apartments, in the cumulative period until October, visitor numbers reached 245,644, resulting in 718,338 overnight stays; this was an increase in respect of the same period of 2024 of 32.6% in the case of visitor numbers and 17.0% in that of overnight stays. The average length of stay was 2.92 days in these ten months of 2025, compared to the 3.31 days observed in the same period of 2024. The bed occupancy rate stood at 41.1%, 0.2 percentage points above that reached in the same period 2024. The apartment occupancy rate, reached 72.6%, 5.8 percentage points above that obtained in the equivalent period of 2024.

Referring to tourist hostels, in 2025 to date they have accumulated 239,484 visitors and 429,485 overnight stays, following increases of 4.6% in the case of visitor numbers and 3.8% in that of overnight stays, compared to the same months of 2024. The average stay was 1.79 days, slightly below the 1.81 days in the cumulative period of the previous year. Lastly, the bed occupancy rate was 42.0%, 0.7 percentage points higher than that obtained during the same period of 2024.

Note

The response rate for the Survey on Tourist Establishments this month was 90.7% for Rural Accommodation, 85.3% for Tourist Apartments and 90.4% 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) 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