Long weekend hotel bookings up across Spain; down in Catalonia

Spain's tourism minister has revealed that hotel bookings are up across the whole country for this week's long weekend, except in Catalonia, where a 13% drop in bookings has been recorded.

Hotels, country cottages and ski resorts are looking at a 64.3% occupancy rate this week, a 19.4% rise on occupancy for the same time last year, according to a survey carried out by Turespaña.

Current hotel bookings for the long weekend are at 56.1%, (compared with 47.2% for the same dates last year) which is expected to yield 66.4% occupancy.

Ski lodges and country houses are 52% booked out, compared with 31% and 30% respectively last year, with occupancy predicted to reach 65% and 58% in each case.

Tourism to inland areas suggests a 64% occupancy rate, 13 points up on last year, with coastal regions seeing a 7% rise to 67%.

The Canary Islands are the autonomous region with the highest predicted hotel occupancy rate (88%), folllowed by the Basque Country (80%), the Community of Madrid and La Rioja, each with 77%, and Andalucía, with 73%.

The survey results also suggested that some of Spain's big cities would head up the hotel occupancy rates this long weekend, with Granada and Bilbao topping the list with an 81% occupancy rate predicted, followed by Seville with 80%, and Madrid with 79%.

In contrast, Catalonia has seen a 13% drop in bookings, and is looking at an occupancy rate of just 56% compared with a forecast of 65% at the same time in 2016.

The city of Barcelona in particular looks to see bookings drop by 26.7%, and final occupancy rates by 26%, compared with the data collected in 2016.

The Catalan coastline looks to be faring better, however, with bookings up compared with last year, suggesting an occupancy rate of 65% compared with 58% in 2016.

Photo shows tourists outside the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona.