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These figures indicate that 1.5% of the housing stock is used for tourism, around 0.25% more than the previous year. Therefore, there is one TUH unit per 1.25 km² or one for every 121 residents. Combining the figures with the estimated number of tourists in August from the INE's experimental statistics on tourism using data gathered from smartphones, one TUH was offered this summer in Spain for every 80 tourists.

The INE statistics on tourist accommodation also provide an estimate of the number of available rooms. The data is similar to that provided by surveys on the tourist accommodation occupancy for hotels, tourist apartments, rural tourism accommodation and campsites. This graph compares the distribution of the estimated number of places in these accommodations in Spain and in each autonomous community.

The August figures estimate that the availability of tourist-use housing units is very similar to the hotel availability. It is even dominant in Andalusia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Valencian Community, Galicia and the Region of Murcia. The estimate of available rooms in hotels is much higher in the Balearic Islands, the Autonomous Community of Madrid, the Canary Islands, Extremadura and the Basque Country. In Navarre, the highest estimate is in campsites.

Of all the tourist-use housing units in Spain, one in five is located in Andalusia and one in ten in the provinces of Alicante or Malaga. In addition, Madrid is the city with the biggest number of tourist-use housing units and has twice as much units as the following provinces: Barcelona. The Balearic Islands are the autonomous community where the number of tourist-use housing units has increased the least (less than 2%), but together with the Canary Islands it is the only one where tourist-use housing account for more than 4% of the total number of homes.

Visualisation of the INE data on tourist housing in Dataestur

Dataestur has a dashboard with the data published by the INE. This information includes the distribution of tourist-use housing up to the municipal level, its proportion in terms of the total number of homes and the number of TUH units available. In addition, Dataestur's analytical data shows indicators that link the tourist-use housing with the surface area of the destinations and the number of inhabitants, so that it is identified that up to 6 provinces exceed 20 tourist-use housing units per 1,000 inhabitants or that several tourist municipalities exceed 150 tourist-use homes per 1,000 inhabitants.

The following classifications facilitate the consultation of the latest available data (published in November 2024 and referring to VUT in Spain in August 2024).

The survey reveals that VUTs now account for almost 5% of all available housing in the province of Las Palmas and Girona. In the first, municipalities such as La Oliva (Fuerteventura) or Yaiza (Lanzarote) stand out, where tourist housing already exceeds 20% of the total. In the second, the concentration is mainly in small tourist spots.

Municipal classifications vary significantly in the indicators that relate the number of tourist dwellings with the population and dwellings of the destination. For example, Marbella is the only one of the five cities with the most tourist-use housing units that appears among the 100 destinations with the most tourist-use housing units per inhabitant and the only one where tourist-use housing represents more than 3% of the total number of homes.

Just 15 provinces account for 80% of Spain's tourist-use housing. The highest concentration is on the coast and coastal provinces account for almost 85% of tourist-use housing. Alicante and Malaga stand out with just over 10 out of every 100 tourist homes in Spain in each province, as well as the island provinces, which have more than 6 out of every 100 tourist-use housing units in Spain.

The following maps allow you to view the distribution of tourist-use housing by province and compare it with the changes over the last year. In this regard, in addition to the case of the Balearic Islands discussed above, Andalusia and Catalonia show a slower growth in terms of new tourist-use housing units out of the areas with the highest concentration.  Furthermore, inland regions are those that have proportionally increased the number of tourist homes the most.

The number of Tourist-Use Housing units has grown by less than 10% in only 8 provinces. These are: Gipuzkoa (10%), Huelva (8%), Girona (7.5%), Cadiz (7%), Tarragona (7%), Lleida (6%), Almeria (2%) and the Balearic Islands (2%).

When analysing TUH units per province, data available on Datestur makes it possible to include a new indicator to link them to the arrival of tourists at their destination. In this case, the number of TUH units available per 100 tourists. This has been calculated with August data from the INE's experimental statistics on measuring tourism through mobile telephony, which offers estimations of tourists up to the municipality. The information needed for the calculation is available for download from the API service.

The maps below show the density of TUH units per province versus the number of tourists received, population and total number of properties. The biggest number of TUH units per tourist received is in the provinces of the Canary Islands. In Las Palmas, there is one for every 32 tourists and, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, one for every 25 tourists.

Tourist-use housing is highly concentrated in a few destinations. For example, the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Valencia alone concentrate more than 11% of the total tourist-use housing in Spain. In fact, only 30 destinations concentrate more than 35% of the tourist-use housing in the entire country. The concentration is mainly in large municipalities and in important tourist spots.

This is particularly high in the capitals of provinces, such as Madrid, Seville and Zaragoza, with more than 70% of the total. In others, such as Barcelona, Gipuzkoa, Álava, Salamanca or Valladolid, a single municipality concentrates around half of the total tourist-use housing.

The chart shows the seven municipalities with the largest number of tourist-use housing in each Spanish province and, in the vast majority, these seven destinations account for more than half of the total housing. The only exceptions would be Teruel (49%), Cáceres (46%), Cantabria (45%), Segovia (42%), Balearic Islands (41%), A Coruña (40%), Guadalajara (37%).

In addition to monitoring by volume of tourist-use housing or by its relation with the total number of homes and inhabitants (this information is provided at the start of the post), the figures related to the supply of tourist-use housing per tourist received would also be relevant and should be analysed. The table below shows the number of units of Tourist-Use Housing per 100 tourists in those destinations that received at least 15,000 tourists during the month of August. In this case, island and Mediterranean destinations stand out above all.

This information can be compared with the figures for each province or tourist area and with the data available in Dataestur (Spanish tourism database) and its API service. For example, in the province of Malaga, distribution of units of Tourist-Use Housing among its municipalities and their supply in relation to the number of tourists received in August for each destination, as shown in the maps below.

Note: the INE's experimental statistics that measure the number of tourist-use housing units in Spain use an algorithm to filter the accommodation offered by online tourist accommodation platforms and identify the units of tourist-use housing on these platforms. The algorithm analyses the regional legislation that identifies the accommodation permits granted in each autonomous community when classifying the tourist-use housing offered. These permits and the full algorithm can be found in the technical report of the statistical study. Note that in the case of Extremadura and the Autonomous Community of Navarre, the "tourist apartment" permit is included in the definition of tourist-use housing.