Benidorm grows in overnight stays and tourists in 2024 thanks to the boost from international markets

 Benidorm grew in 2024 in overnight stays and tourists thanks to the boost from international markets. This is evident from the annual report of Visit Benidorm that the mayor, Toni Pérez, and the manager of the foundation, Leire Bilbao, reported this Friday during the International Tourism Fair of Madrid (Fitur), where they highlighted that “this increase is especially significant if we take into account that we had just experienced a great tourist year, 2023, in which we had already grown to recover the values ​​before the pandemic”. “With that starting point, the fact of having improved is, without a doubt, a satisfaction but at the same time a stimulus to continue working for a sector that in our city generates wealth, generates well-being and is the industry of happiness”, said Pérez.

According to the data contained in the report, Benidorm received 2,829,531 travellers in 2024, 2.9% more than in the previous year. However, as the mayor has clarified, “the number of tourists is even higher and will be updated in the coming days, once the National Institute of Statistics (INE) publishes the December data on travellers and occupancy in apartments and campsites”.

In the absence of these latest data, the city recorded 15,460,265 overnight stays, 4.6% more than in 2023. Of these, 11.5 million were in hotel establishments, which ended the year with 5.4% more customers than the previous year, reaching 2.3 million, and with an increase in average occupancy of 0.7%, standing at 81.1%. During 2024, the average stay in hotels was close to five days, maintaining the numbers from the previous year.

Toni Pérez has highlighted that “the growth in activity has been global in all the accommodation offer in Benidorm, especially in tourist apartments, which have reached 77.7%, 4.3 points more than the previous year”. Along the same lines, campsites have grown by 2.9%, signing an average occupancy of 93.4%; while that of tourist homes has stood at 51.3%, practically identical to that of 2023.

Toni Pérez has reported that within the international markets, “an increase in travellers from Ireland has been detected, so much so that this market has overtaken Belgium and the Netherlands, thus completing a podium headed by tourists from the United Kingdom and Portugal”.

In the absence of definitive data, “the national market has registered a very slight decline compared to the previous year, barely 0.1%”. However, “the push from international tourism has been so important that Benidorm has not only not dropped in tourists and overnight stays, but has closed the year improving in both”.
These growth figures, Pérez has specified, “are the result of the intense and constant work carried out by Visit Benidorm in these international issuing markets to position the destination”.

Continuing with the positive trend, the study reflects that profitability improved during 2024, since the average REVPAR, income per available hotel room, increased by almost 10 euros compared to the previous year, standing at 78.3 euros. The average room rate has also increased, reaching 100.9 euros last year, compared to 91.1 in 2023.

This trend has also been seen in the spending made by tourists in the city, with increases that would be above 21%.

During the presentation, the mayor stressed that “the data collected in the report confirm the strength of the tourism sector in our city and something very important: its capacity to generate employment and redistribute wealth”. The fact is that tourism activity “has been key for Benidorm to have closed the year 2024 as the municipality in the Valencian Community with the lowest unemployment rate, 10.75% for the year as a whole and below double figures during the high season months”.

Toni Pérez has added that “the city has closed the year with 1,518 more people affiliated to Social Security than the previous year, and more than 2,700 above 2019, the last year before the pandemic”. Compared to that year, Benidorm has reduced the unemployment rate by more than 7 points.

He also reported that the number of employees in Benidorm's hotel industry has grown by 5.2% to 6,281.

Among the parameters analysed, the mayor has also referred to the degree of overall satisfaction with the destination expressed by tourists, which remains 10 points above 2019, standing at 76.7 out of 100. The mayor has emphasised, “the very high rating that year after year presents a parameter so important for any tourist destination, security, which is valued at 95 points out of 100”. Satisfaction with the destination's products also improved slightly, reaching a score of 72.1, and with the climate, which obtained 90.4 points.

“In global terms, in the last six years, overall tourist satisfaction has been increasing in the different parameters,” he pointed out.

On the other hand, he mentioned that “monitoring social networks indicates that sun and beach continues to be the product that arouses the most interest among users, followed by active tourism, culture and gastronomy.”

Toni Pérez concluded the assessment by advancing that the data on reservations for 2025 already point to an increase in them during all months of the year compared to those for the same period in 2024.

Full report: https://infogram.com/anual-2024-1hnp27enyre3n4g