24/07/2003 00:00
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By Lois Jones THE Balearics, Valencia and the Canary Islands were the regions of Spain that registered the highest hotel occupancy during the month of June. However, Catalunya and Andalucia were the provinces which had most visitors. According to the June report made public yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Spanish hotels accommodated 3'251'465 domestic clients and 3'014'783 foreign guests. Together the two groups accounted for 24'049'338 hotel nights, with an average period of stay of 3.84 days. Average hotel occupancy in June, according to the report, was 58.38 percent. However, in the Balearics the figure was 74.93 percent, in Valencia 64.68 percent and in the Canary Islands, 62.65 percent. At the other end of the scale, the least degree of occupany was registered in Extremadura (29.56 percent) followed by Aragón, Galicia and Asturias, each recording about 32 percent. With regard to visitors travelling in the month of June, Catalunya received the greatest number of tourists, with 518'846 Spaniards and 708'927 foreigners. Andalucia was visited by 627'745 tourists resident in Spain and 496'260 coming from abroad. The provinces which received least tourist visits in June were La Rioja, with a total of 39'139 of which 31'244 were Spanish and 7'895 overseas visitors; Navarra (with 37'823 and 12'917 respectively), Murcia (64'855 and 14'987) and Extremadura (66'112 and 13'834). The self-governing cities of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa were also at the bottom end of the scale. The Balearic Islands was the region which registered the highest number of overnight stays, with 7'092'730, over and above Catalunya (4'419'696), Andalucia (3'530'238), the Canary Islands (2'814'856) and Valencia (2'138'499 overnight stays). The longest average periods of stay were noted in the Canary Islands, where visitors remained on average more than 8 days, and in the Balearics with 7.12 days. In Castilla y León meanwhile, along with La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, the Basque Country, Navarra, Aragón and the city of Ceuta in North Africa, average overnight stays didn't even amount to two days. The following table shows, across the provinces of Spain, the numbers of travellers resident in Spain and abroad who visited hotels in June 2003, the number of nights that were spent there, the average stay and the level of occupancy per placing according to data sourced from the National Institute of Statistics.