Profile of the Tourist Who Sleeps in Rural Accommodation, When and Where
Analysis based on the 2022 data from the tourist occupancy survey (accommodation in rural tourism) by the National Statistics Institute (INE)
Travellers who typically choose rural accommodation are Spanish tourists who travel mainly between April and September (around 70% of the overnight stays, of which half are in the months of July and August). Their main destination is Castile and Leon and their average stay is between 2 and 3 nights (except in July and August, between 3 and 4 nights). The next best ranked destinations for rural tourism are Catalonia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands. The latter concentrates its stays in the summer months.
In six autonomous regions, most overnight stays in rural accommodation are by travellers from the region itself. The most striking case is Catalonia (around 94% of overnight stays for Spanish residents are travellers from the region), followed by the Region of Valencia (77%), the Region of Madrid (76%), Andalusia (74%), the Canary Islands (71%) and the Region of Murcia (64%). Cantabria (6%), Asturias (9%) and La Rioja (11%) are the bottom of this list.
In 2022 and in global numbers, rural accommodation has almost gone back to the figures of 2019: more than four million travellers, with around 80% Spanish residents. Only three foreign markets have exceeded 100,000 tourists: Germany (200,266), France (137,913) and the UK (108,000). The first two with quite stable numbers as of April, and France with a significant rebound in August (more than a quarter).
You can consult all the data for the year in Dataestur's graphs from the survey on occupancy in rural tourism accommodation.
RURAL ACCOMMODATION VERSUS TOTAL ACCOMMODATION IN 2022
Tourists who visit inland Spain most often choose rural tourism accommodation. In fact, in Castile and Leon, Castile-La Mancha and Extremadura, this type of accommodation ranks second in number of overnight stays, only behind hotels, and with overnight stays accounting for around 15%. In Navarre, Cantabria and Asturias, overnight stays in rural tourism accommodation are also above 10% of the total. On the other hand, in the Canary Islands, the Region of Valencia and the Region of Madrid, they do not even account for 1% of the overnight stays.
DATA FOR RURAL ACCOMODATION
2022 data from the INE tourist accommodation occupancy survey (rural tourism accommodation).