Ibiza tops list of most profitable vacation destinations in Spain
Three island locations are among the top five in terms of revenue per available room
Ibiza has become the most profitable Spanish vacation destination for the hotel industry – and the most expensive one for customers – according to a new report by the tourism industry group Exceltur.
Three island locations are on the list of Spain’s top five vacation destinations in terms of revenue per available room (RevPAR), a metric used widely by the industry.
Destinations in the Balearics have benefited from “substantial investment in facility renovation and repositioning in recent years”
San Josep de Sa Talaia is the municipality where hotels get the most out of their facilities: over €124 per available room. The second spot goes to Ibiza’s capital of Eivissa, while Chiclana de la Frontera, in the Andalusian province of Cádiz, ranks third, followed by another Ibiza destination, Santa Eulària des Riu.
The RevPAR is an indicator that combines occupancy and price figures over a certain period of time. For instance, if a hotel has two guestrooms at €100 each, but only one is occupied over the analyzed period, the RevPAR is €50.
Exceltur studied 106 tourist destinations to find the profitability of Spanish hotels in 2018, breaking the statistics down into city destinations and vacation destinations. According to its figures, last year was particularly good for the industry in the Balearic islands and in the cities, while the Canary Islands felt the competition from other Mediterranean destinations such as Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and Greece, which are recovering from a long slump.
Exceltur said that tourist destinations in the Balearics have benefited from “substantial investment in facility renovation and repositioning in recent years.”
The results
San Josep de Sa Talaia came in first with a RevPAR of €124.1 in 2018, a 10.5% rise from the previous year. The island capital, Eivissa, experienced a drop of 7.1% to €121.8, which still puts it in second spot. On the mainland, Chiclana de la Frontera came in third with a RevPAR of €111.9, a 4.3% rise from the previous year. Fourth spot went to another municipality in Ibiza, Santa Eulària des Riu, with €109.8. Fifth place goes to Adeje, in the Canary Islands, with €101.8.
The bottom of the RevPAR ranking is occupied by Cartagena (€44.2), Denia (€46.8) and El Puerto de Santa María, also in Cádiz, which is a major sun-and-sand destination yet only made €35.6 on its rooms last year.
The city with the highest RevPAR was Barcelona (€98.9), followed by San Sebastián in the Basque Country (€97) and Palma de Mallorca (€84.8). Madrid had the highest RevPAR of inland cities (€73.5), followed by Seville (€72).
English version by Susana Urra.
