How is the hotel industry made up in Spain?
In the last years, the number of registered companies operating in the hotel industry in Spain —which includes hostels, apartment hotels, motels— has remained relatively stagnant at approximately 12.5 thousand, except for 2018 when the number peaked at 13.5 thousand. Most of the Spanish hotel companies fall under the category ‘microbusinesses’, with over half of them employing up to two people.For the most part, the hotel industry in Spain is driven by international tourists, while most domestic travelers would rather stay at other types of accommodation. In 2021, foreign overnight travelers made up around two-thirds of guests at hotels and hostels in Spain, which reverted the distribution shown in 2020, when because of the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic tourists constituted the largest share of hotel customers in the country.
The COVID-19 impact on the industry
In the first year of the global COVID-19 crisis, hotels and similar accommodation establishments in Spain experienced a drop of roughly 80 percent in the number of international guests. In 2021, the total had grown back to a little 20 million tourists, representing a year-over-year increase of approximately 86 percent. However, this figure was still 63 percent below pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that the full recovery path might take several years to complete. From a bed occupancy perspective, the rates between October and December 2021 were the closest to the figures of 2019, while April and May 2021 stayed the furthest away from pre-COVID-19 rates.
