Beloved summer locations
Trips by Catalans within Catalonia last year amounted to almost 18.9 million journeys in 2022, with a total expenditure of 2.76 billion euros
The country offers visitors a wide range of resources and activities, as well as a favourable climate
Catalonia is a major tourist destination for domestic, European and worldwide travellers. The country offers all visitors a wide range of holiday resources and activities, while boasting a favourable climate that makes it a leader in certain tourism segments and products.
Indeed, tourism is one of the main drivers of the Catalan economy. Despite the global health crisis caused by Covid-19 having a very intense impact on the sector, it is now on the way to recovery, according to data collected by the Catalan Tourism Agency.
The main tourism statistics for 2022 show improvements in year-on-year terms. Although pre-pandemic levels have not yet been reached, as a comparison with 2019 reveals, activity in the sector is recovering.
Catalonia ended 2022 with 102,243 tourist establishments registered in the Tourism Registry of Catalonia, providing almost 1.2 million beds. From the year-on-year comparison, which does not include shared homes, because no figures are available for the whole of 2021 for these establishments, it appears that supply increased by 5.2% and by 2.7%, respectively.
Almost 24.9 million travellers stayed at all types of establishments, including hostels, with 79.9 million overnight stays. However, the numbers were still lower than in 2019, which was a record year for tourism.
Local Catalan tourism
Trips by Catalans within Catalonia amounted to almost 18.9 million journeys, with a total expenditure of 2.8 billion euros. The flow increased in year-on-year terms (13.0% and 26.5%, respectively). The influx by trip type shows that around three out of every four trips and four out of every five euros were in non-own accommodation (76.8%: 14.5 million trips, and 82.8%: 2.3 billion euros), where activity is growing compared to a year ago. The average expenditure of Catalans on trips with non-own accommodation within Catalonia amounted to 157 euros per person and 55 euros per trip per day (11.5% and 18.5% year-on-year).
Meanwhile, in 2022, Catalonia received almost 5.3 million trips from the rest of Spain, with a total expenditure of 2.3 billion (36.0% and 55.9% up in year-on-year terms, respectively). The average amounts were 437 euros per trip and 92 euros per person per day (14.6% and 33.9% year-on-year, respectively).
Labour market
It is estimated that on average in Catalonia 454,400 people worked in activities related to tourism in 2022, some 7.2% more than a year earlier (30,700 more people), and that represented 12.9% of the employed as a whole of the economy. As for unemployment, 12.2% of the unemployed are from the tourism sector.
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