Balearics favourite Spanish destination in October

THE Balearic Islands was the main Spanish destination chosen by foreign tourists in October, who made 4.2 million overnight stays in hotels on the islands, although this was 1.4 percent less than in the same month last year, according to the Joint Hotel Poll published yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Balearic hotels, which recorded one in three of all overnight stays by foreigners in Spain, had an occupation of 59.4 percent.
This was 1.4 percentage points more that 12 months ago, with an average stay of 6.3 days, slightly less than the 7.9 days of October 2005.
In total, the establishments on the islands recorded 4.6 million overnight stays, some 6.2 percent less than 12 months ago.
However, the overnight stays made by Spanish residents increased with a total of 432'834 stays (as opposed to 397'517 in October 2005).
The hotels on Majorca, which was the tourist area with the highest number of overnight stays, recorded 3.9 million overnight stays, some 2.5 percent less that the same month in 2005. The majority of these were made by foreigners (3.6 million), giving the hotels an occupation of 62.4 percent (3.2 percentage points more) and an average stay of 6.4 days (as opposed to 7.8 in October 2005). For their part the hotels on Ibiza, fifth destination with most overnight stays in October, had 461'250 tourists staying (in comparison with 625'855 in 2005). The average occupation was 48.8 percent (six percentage points less) and the average stay was 5.4 days (in comparison with 8.6 days last October).
Calvia and Palma were the second and third Spanish tourist areas with most overnight stays, with an occupation of 63.5 and 66.9 percent respectively.
This was four percentage points more for Calvia and five points less for Palma. The average stay was 6.3 days in Calvia and 5.1 in Palma, less than last year in both cases (9 and 5.9 days). According to the INE, hotel prices increased by 1.2 percent in the Balearics in October in comparison with the same month last year, six tenths of a percentage point less than the national average of 1.8 percent. Equally, income per room rose by one percent in the Balearics during the tenth month of the year, which was 1.7 percentage points below the national average of 2.7 percent.
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For their part, Spanish hotels recorded 23.3 million overnight stays during the month of October.
This was an increase of 3.9 percent on the same month last year, while hotel prices increased by 1.8 percent, 0.3 percentage points more than was recorded during the same month last year.
Overnight stays by Spanish residents increased by 7.9 percent and those for foreigners rose by 1.3 percent, while the average stay was 3.2 days per person, which was an interannual fall of 0.9 percent.
During the first 10 months of the year, overnight stays increased by 6.2 percent with regard to the same period last year.
The interannual growth for Spanish residents was 5.5 percent, while the growth for foreigners was 6.7 percent.
In October hotels had a 54.6 percent occupation, which was an increase of 1.2 percent in comparison with the same month last year.
However, hotel occupation for weekend breaks was 61.4 percent, which was an interannual increase of 5.8 percent.
Travellers from the United Kingdom and Germany made 8.8 million overnight stays in October, which was some 63.2 percent of the total of all those made by foreigners.
In October, and for the eigth consecutive month, the German tourist market experienced an interannual increase of two percent in its overnight stays, while the British tourist market decreased by 4.3 percent.