- Spain recorded more than 12m foreign tourists in a single month
- Holiday rentals grew 13.7pc compared with 6.6pc for hotels in August
- Hotels captured 63.4pc of total spending at €11,316m
- Around one-third of tourists now choose short-term rentals
- Barcelona plans to phase out short-term tourist apartment licences
Holiday rentals are outpacing hotels as the accommodation of choice during Spain’s record-breaking summer tourism boom. Data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute highlights that while overall foreign tourist arrivals continue to shatter previous records, short-term rentals and non-market lodgings are seeing substantial growth while traditional hotel usage is experiencing a downward shift.
Spain recorded its strongest summer on record with more than 12m foreign tourists arriving in a single month for the first time. Holiday rental accommodation grew at twice the rate of hotels in August, rising 13.7pc to almost 1.57m travellers compared with a 6.6pc increase for hotels to just over 8m guests. Hotels still captured the majority of spending at €11,316m or 63.4pc of the total while other market accommodation including rentals saw spending rise 18.5pc to €3,821m. Around one-third of all tourists now opt for short-term vacation rentals rather than standard commercial lodging.
The expansion of short-term lets persisted despite aggressive government and municipal interventions across Spain to curb overtourism. Platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com removed thousands of irregular properties under strict new registration regulations. Stricter oversight triggered steep short-term rental inventory drops in regions like Ibiza and Mallorca while alternative coastal hubs like Malaga and Almeria continued to scale up their tourist apartment supply. Barcelona pushed ahead with strategic plans to phase out short-term tourist apartment licences.
