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Rural tourism. Travellers and occupancy rate. By tourism brands

Rural tourism. Travellers and occupancy rate. By tourism brands Catalonia Value
Total travellers Barcelona Catalunya Central Costa Brava Costa Daurada Costa de Garraf Costa Barcelona-Maresme Costa Barcelona Paisatges Barcelona Pirineus Terres de Lleida Terres de l'Ebre Val d'Aran
2023 (p) 504.4 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 133.0 29.3 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 35.0 78.3 179.1 35.7 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2022 492.0 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 114.7 29.5 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 40.5 72.5 184.1 37.5 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2021 398.1 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 94.7 22.2 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 33.0 50.6 159.4 27.8 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2020 275.1 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 75.4 18.4 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 19.2 31.3 105.0 14.5 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2019 503.8 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 138.4 35.8 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 47.7 71.6 171.1 22.1 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2018 485.2 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 134.4 29.5 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 36.0 64.8 174.5 28.0 16.8 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2017 440.6 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 107.5 28.5 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 32.7 55.0 163.7 29.4 21.8 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2016 394.2 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 89.6 27.2 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 29.2 (b) Break in time series 47.0 (b) Break in time series 151.1 32.9 15.7 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2015 385.4 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 99.2 24.4 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 27.0 (b) Break in time series 42.4 151.1 25.8 14.0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2014 332.8 z Category not applicable 48.6 84.5 22.2 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 12.7 z Category not applicable 126.6 19.8 12.1 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2013 268.5 z Category not applicable 45.6 75.5 15.9 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 12.4 z Category not applicable 90.3 16.3 7.7 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2012 290.9 z Category not applicable 42.3 75.9 20.5 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 8.3 z Category not applicable 113.3 18.3 8.7 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2011 311.9 z Category not applicable 50.6 72.7 23.3 9.2 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 125.0 18.2 10.4 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2010 298.3 z Category not applicable 40.5 67.2 18.4 11.5 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 130.0 19.5 11.6 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2009 330.8 z Category not applicable 44.2 70.6 19.7 11.8 2.6 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 151.2 20.5 12.9 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2008 336.7 z Category not applicable 48.4 72.7 15.5 8.4 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 154.5 22.0 13.9 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2007 315.4 z Category not applicable 45.4 65.3 16.4 5.3 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 142.2 20.6 13.1 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2006 270.4 z Category not applicable 43.8 55.7 15.1 5.2 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 119.7 13.7 13.0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
2005 228.3 z Category not applicable 30.3 44.2 13.1 5.0 2.1 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 107.0 9.2 12.6 3.1
2004 206.9 z Category not applicable 26.7 40.2 11.1 4.0 1.4 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 99.2 6.8 13.5 3.9
2003 176.6 z Category not applicable 20.2 34.2 8.5 3.0 1.4 z Category not applicable z Category not applicable 88.4 7.5 10.6 3.9
Units: Thousands.
Source: Idescat, based on the INE's Survey of occupancy of rural tourism accommodation.
Note: Between 14 March and 21 June 2020, it is in force the Royal Decree 463/2020, of 14 March, which declares the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by Covid-19.
(p) Provisional data.
(b) Break in time series.
(z) Category not applicable.
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.

Last update: February 1, 2024.

Quarterly data

TURUR

These statistics have a specific section with all the information available: Statistics on Rural Tourism Accommodation Activity (TURUR).

Methodological note

The Rural Tourism Accommodation Occupancy Survey of INE is one of the statistical sources for measuring tourism activity. Its main purpose is to provide information about the behaviour of a series of variables which make it possible to set out the fundamental features of this type of accommodation in the tourism sector: travellers, overnight stays and occupancy rate.

The survey covers all rural tourism establishments registered as such in the register of the Directorate General for Tourism, which can be consulted in the lists of tourism establishments that the published by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Families.

Rural tourism accommodation means establishments or dwellings which provide tourist accommodation in return for payment with or without supplementary services. These establishments usually have some specific features:

  • they are located in the countryside in the centres of town with a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants or isolated (outside the town centre);
  • they are integrated in buildings that existed before 1950 and that respect the architectural typology;
  • they offer a limited number of beds and rooms for the accommodation of guests and meet certain basic facility and amenity requirements

Rural tourism accommodation establishments may use either or both of the following systems for renting rooms:

  • complete use rent means hiring the entire building for the exclusive use of the contractor,
  • shared use rent means individualised hiring of rooms in the family dwelling.

Traveller means any person who stays for one or more consecutive nights in the same accommodation. The survey classifies travellers by their country of residence, which makes it possible to distinguish between domestic tourism (people resident in Spain) and foreign tourism (people resident outside Spain). In the case of people resident in Spain, information is requested about the autonomous community they are from.

An overnight stay is each night that a traveller stays in the rural tourism establishment.

The occupancy rate per room is the percentage relationship between the daily average of rooms occupied in the month and the total number of rooms in the sample for the same period. We should consider that rural tourism, given its special characteristics, always presents lower degrees of occupancy than that registered by hotels.

On the basis of INE data, Idescat expands on the quarterly results for Catalonia according to the category of the establishments and tourism brands of destination.

Until year 2003, Terres de l'Ebre tourism brand was included in Costa Daurada and Val d'Aran formed part of the Pirineus. At the end 2011, the Catalan Tourism Agency approved the creation of a new tourism zone called Costa Barcelona. This brand includes the territory of the former Costa del Garraf and Costa de Barcelona-Maresme.

In 2015, two changes were made to the tourism brands, approved by the Catalan Tourist Board. The first change is that the counties El Vallès Oriental and El Vallès Occidental, which used to be a part of the Catalunya Central brand, as of 2015 will come under the Costa Barcelona brand. The second change is to the name of the brand: Catalunya Central will now be known as Paisatges de Barcelona.

Thus Catalonia is divided into 9 tourism brands:

  • Barcelona: Barcelonès
  • Costa Brava: Alt Empordà, Baix Empordà, Gironès, Pla de l'Estany and Selva
  • Costa Daurada: Alt Camp, Baix Camp, Baix Penedès, Conca de Barberà, Priorat and Tarragonès
  • Costa Barcelona: Alt Penedès, Baix Llobregat, Garraf, Maresme, Vallès Occidental and Vallès Oriental
  • Paisatges Barcelona: Anoia, Bages and Osona
  • Pirineus: Alt Urgell, Alta Ribagorça, Berguedà, Cerdanya, Garrotxa, Pallars Jussà, Pallars Sobirà, Ripollès and Solsonès
  • Terres de Lleida: Garrigues, Noguera, Pla d'Urgell, Segarra, Segrià and Urgell
  • Terres de l'Ebre: Baix Ebre, Montsià, Ribera d'Ebre and Terra Alta
  • Val d'Aran: Aran

Until 2011, the territorial disaggregation by tourism brands was calculated using special estimators for small areas. This methodology does not guarantee that the total amount is exactly the same as the result for the whole of Catalonia using the traditional estimator. However, the discrepancies are of little significance.

Given the limited implantation of this type of tourism in some brands of Catalonia, the year-over-year variation rates can be considerably volatile.

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