Balearies has highest hotel occupancy rate in Spain

PALMA
HOTELS in the Balearic Islands were 71.7 percent full last month, the highest occupancy rate in the country. The figures were revealed in a National Institute of Statistics (INE) report published yesterday. It added, however, that the occupancy rate in the Balearics was nevertheless down by 4.6 percent in comparison with June last year (76.3%) and that although the region clocked up 6.9 million overnight stays, it was 5.54 percent less than the same month in 2008. Of the total number of visitors who came to the Balearics last month, 91.3 percent were foreigners whilst the remainder were Spanish nationals. Both groups of tourists came for an average stay of 6.28 days. The Balearics was also the top holiday choice in Spain for foreign visitors. But the number of overnight stays made by foreigners, which goes to make up 38.9 percent of the national total, fell in the Balearics last month by 2.9 percent in comparison with June in 2008. In Catalonia the fall in the number of visiting foreigners for the same period was 9.1 percent and in the Canary Islands, the variance was 13.6 percent.