06 February 2008
The city of Benidorm was once again the tourist destination with the highest level of average occupation in Spain during 2007, according to the information published yesterday by the National Statistics Institute. The INE found that the city’s hotel establishments maintained an average of 81.7% of their beds occupied throughout the 12 months of 2007, making the Costa Blanca (White Coast) town Spain’s most popular destination.
Benidorm’s percentage of average occupation calculated by the INE is even higher when measuring overnight stays that occurred on weekends, a category in which the city was also Spain’s indisputable leader, with an average of 86.1%. The tables reflect that close to 1.8 million tourists slept in Benidorm hotels during 2007, while the number of overnight stays exceeded 11.7 million, excluding calculations for cases of special hotel offers.
On a national scale, the number of overnight hotel stays during 2007 was 272.7 million, 2.1% more than the previous year. The number of openings increased 2.8%, reaching a total of 1,298,846 beds, which achieved an average occupation level of 56.2% -- three decimals less than in 2006.
LEVANTE - Jan. 24, 2008
