Which Tourists Choose a Campsite, When and Where

20-04-2023

Which Tourists Choose a Campsite, When and Where

Analysis based on the 2022 data from the tourist occupancy survey (campsites) by the National Statistics Institute (INE)

Guests in campsites in Spain are mainly domestic tourists. Their trips take place primarily between April and September, albeit with much more intensity in the months of July and August (these two months account for more than 45% of the overnight stays). Catalonia is the main destination, with figures that almost triple the number of travellers to the second autonomous region (Andalusia) and double the stays of the next region in overnight stays (Region of Valencia).

The average stay is around 5 nights, one of the highest among all the types of accommodation. The highest average stays were registered in months with fewer tourists such as January (7 nights), December (6.3 nights) and February (5.9 nights). The Region of Murcia and the Region of Valencia stand out with average stays of around 8 nights.

Camping has seen the most improvement in its figures in 2022 compared to 2019. It has increased the number of its guests by around 14% and overnight stays by over 10%. National residents represent more than 65% and, in many cases, travellers from the region itself stay at campsites. This is particularly relevant in three regions, where more than 80% of the overnight stays are tourists from the same region (Canary Islands 92%, Catalonia 85%, and Andalusia 81%).

Based on the distribution of overnight stays according to origin in each autonomous region, three flows of travellers stand out: from the Basque Country to La Rioja, Cantabria and Navarre; from the Region of Madrid to Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura and Castile and Leon; and from Catalonia to Aragon and the Balearic Islands.

Foreign tourists staying in campsites are led by travellers from France (slightly more than one in four foreign stays are French) and from Germany (around 20%). In fact, along with travellers from the Netherlands, these three nationalities account for more than 66% of foreign stays in campsites in Spain. Foreign tourists have substantially long stays. For example, travellers from the United Kingdom and Finland have average stays of more than 10 nights and those from Belgium and the Netherlands have an average stay of more than 7 nights.

You can access the data for the year in Dataestur's graphs from the campsite occupancy survey.

CAMPSITES VERSUS TOTAL ACCOMODATION IN 2022

Campsites are the third leading type of accommodation in terms of most overnight stays in Spain. They are the second in length of the average stay, which exceeds five nights and is only lower than the average for tourist apartments. In up to ten autonomous regions, campsites are the second type of accommodation with the most overnight stays. Cantabria, La Rioja, the Region of Murcia, Catalonia and Navarre are of particular notice: overnight stays in campsites exceed 20% of the total. Catalonia tops the ranking of overnight stays in campsites with more than 18 million, twice as many overnight stays as the next region, the Region of Valencia. Meanwhile, in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, campsite figures are really low, and they account for less than 4% of stays in the Region of Madrid.