The hotels in the Canary Islands were the beneficiaries of one in four hotel overnight stays made by foreign tourists who visited Spain last year: 63.65 million out of a total of 241.70 million (26.3%), according to the National Institute of Statistics.
Last year, the islands' hotels hosted 11.09 million customers, 8.70 million citizens from other countries and 2.38 million Spaniards, who made a total of 72.93 million overnight stays (9.28 million of them, domestic tourists).
Gran Canaria and Tenerife were the second and third areas with the highest occupancy rate in the entire country, with rates of 76.06% and 75.59% of the places, respectively, as an average throughout the year. Only Mallorca is above these figures, with 77.99%.
If the occupancy is measured by rooms, instead of places, Lanzarote is at the top of the table, with 87.92%.
And a Canary Island destination occupied the third place in overnight stays: Maspalomas (Gran Canaria), with 12.74 million overnight stays, a figure only surpassed by Barcelona, with 21.81 million, and Madrid, with 20.90 million. Fifth was Adeje (Tenerife), with 10.91 million.
The balance of the year also indicates that stays in Canary Island hotels had an average duration of 6.57 days, twice that of the sector as a whole in the rest of the country (3.13).
As for prices, the establishments in the Canary Islands closed the year with an average increase in their rates of 6.5%, half a point below the sector average (7.0%). The largest increases occurred in Madrid (12.1%) and the Balearic Islands (7.6%).
In Spain as a whole, overnight stays in hotel establishments rose by 4.9% in 2024, to 363.6 million in the year as a whole, and prices, in average rate, grew by 8%, so that both indicators once again shatter the records of previous years and are at historical figures.
The INE has certified this Friday what the hoteliers have been advancing for months and have also confirmed that week in Fitur: the year 2024 is the best in the history of the sector, which has accumulated three consecutive years of strong growth, after overcoming the two "horribilis" years of the pandemic.
Although prices continue to rise for the fourth consecutive year, the rate of increase was somewhat lower (1.6 points) than in 2023, reflecting that the evolution returns to more moderate parameters, as also advanced in the sector.
The annual data reflect that the average daily rate per occupied room (ADR in English) was 121.5 euros in the year 2024.
But if we take as a reference the data for December 2024 (117.42 euros per night) over that same month of 2023 (108.76 euros), the increase in the ADR is practically 8% (7.96%).
For its part, revenue per available room (RevPAR, an average that better approximates the profitability of hotels because it also takes into account occupancy) reached 84.6 euros on average.
The more than 363 million hotel nights consumed corresponded to 116.3 million travelers, which gives an average stay of 3.12 days.
More weight of foreigners
The bulk of overnight stays in 2024 corresponds to foreign tourists, with 241.7 million, and an increase of 7.5%, while nationals made almost 122 million nights, 0.2% more. The average stay is higher among international tourists.
Travelers from the United Kingdom and Germany made 102.9 million overnight stays, 42.6% of the total of non-residents. Among the former, they rose by 4.3% and those of the latter, by 8.2%.
Andalusia, Catalonia and the Valencian Community were the main destinations for travelers residing in Spain in 2024, although in the first two cases the rates of variation over the previous year fell (-1.4% and -4.2%) and in the third rose by 2.9%.
The main destination chosen by non-residents was the Canary Islands, with 26.3% of the total overnight stays. In this community, overnight stays by foreigners rose by 5%. The following destinations were the Balearic Islands (23.9% of the total) and Catalonia (18.2%).
In 2024, 61.4% of the places offered were covered on average, with an increase of 2.2% compared to 2023. The occupancy rate per place at the weekend reached 66.7%.
The island of Mallorca was the tourist area with the most overnight stays, with 49.5 million.
The tourist spots with the most nights consumed were Barcelona, Madrid and San Bartolomé de Tirajana. Adeje presented the highest average occupancy rate per place (78.3%).