Hotels of Spain account for the biggest number of overnight tourist stays than in any other European country. These data was presented in the official statistics of the Statistical Office of Spain. Despite the difficult 2011 year tourism industry of the country was able to increase the total number of overnight stays in hotels by 8% compared to 2010. In many respects current situation was formed as a result of riots in the countries that were traditional competitors of Spain. Riots in Egypt and Tunisia made many tourists to choose new places for holidays and Spain was one of the obvious preferences.
In total 288 million overnight stays were recorded in Spanish hotels. This is the highest figure among all EU countries. Spain is followed by Italy with almost 40 million overnight stays. 249 million overnight stays were recorded in this country last year.
Inbound tourism continues to be the base element of success of Spanish hotels. If on average the number of overnight stays in Europe among the foreigners is approximately equal to the number of resident overnight stays, in Spain inbound tourism is obviously more popular. Foreign tourists account for 177 million of the total number of overnight stays in Spanish hotels. British and Germans are two leading inbound tourism nations in the country and form half of the total number of foreign tourists.
As for Andalusia, region's resorts of Costa del Sol - Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Torremolinos, as well as such cities as Seville, provided the region with the main tourist growth. The region holds the fifth place by the number of overnight hotels tays after the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and Valencia.
In 2011 the total number of tourists, who visited Andalusia, exceeded 21.7 million people. One third of them spent their holidays in the province of Malaga, where are located the main resorts of the Costa del Sol. According to opinionmalaga.com, by popularity Malaga province is followed by Granada, Seville and Cadiz.
Ilya Kalachev
Date: 02/02/2012
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