The historic protests in the Canary Islands against mass tourism and for a change in the economic model at the weekend have coincided with a sweet moment for the sector. The Canary Islands are living the high season and in March they led the arrival of foreign travelers and hotel profitability, according to the data released yesterday by the INE. Of the more than four million international tourists who arrived in Spain in March, 20% chose the Canary Islands. In terms of overnight stays, Canary Islands hotels accounted for 38.27% of the total.
In addition, these establishments stood out as the most expensive and profitable in the entire country. The average daily rate for a hotel room in the Canary Islands reached 143 euros in March, compared to 109 euros on average in all of Spain. In terms of revenue per available room, given that it is used to measure the profitability of hotels, it reached 127.31 euros per day, almost twice as much as the rest of the sector in Spain, which billed an average of 69.49 euros per room.
The data compiled by the INE confirm the good evolution of tourist activity in Spain. Hotel prices rose in March by 10% over the same month in 2023, so that they have already accumulated 34 consecutive months of increases. As for overnight stays, they totaled 24.5 million, 19.1% more than a year earlier. The weight of the sector in the Spanish economy as a whole is getting higher and higher, as the Exceltur lobby explained last week.
If last year its contribution already broke historical records, with a generation of 186,596 million euros, 12.8% of GDP according to Exceltur, in 2024 tourist activity will break records again. The entity that brings together the main companies in the sector estimates that the tourism GDP in Spain will exceed 200,000 million euros for the first time (specifically, up to 202,651 million), so that it would reach a participation in the economy of 13, 3%
But this unstoppable bonanza has awakened deep unrest in some of the areas with the most tourist demand, as is the case of the Canary Islands, with large demonstrations at the weekend.
After the Canary Islands, Catalonia was the second main tourist destination for both residents of Spain and international travelers in March. Specifically, it accumulated 13.5% of overnight stays by residents and 16% of overnight stays by citizens from outside Spain.
The establishments in Catalonia, especially those in the city of Barcelona, were also among the most profitable and expensive in the whole country. The average daily rate in Catalonia was close to 120 euros at night, 3.81% more than in March a year earlier. In Barcelona, the daily cost of a room reached 150 euros.
"Barcelona maintains a high tourist demand, with a high interest from both investors and hotel operators in the destination", emphasizes Gustavo Cumella, director of hotels at CBRE. This increasing influx of tourists since the worst of the covid happened and a hotel market controlled through the moratorium that is still in force in the city center have made having a hotel in the Catalan capital almost a treasure.
The interest of international brands has taken on a new impetus and the year has begun with very relevant conversions, such as the transformation of the Juan Carlos into the Torre Melina de Meliá or the Sofia into a Grand Hyatt.
