The coastal town of Benidorm together with Barcelona and Madrid are the only three cities in Spain that exceeded one million overnight stays in October 2013. Specifically, Barcelona leads the ranking with 1.6 million, followed by Madrid with 1.5 and Benidorm with slightly over one million overnight stays, according to a report by the Benidorm, Costa Blanca and Valencia Region Hotel Association (HOSBEC).
Less than a million overnight stays were reported from tourist areas such as San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) with 950,000 overnight stays, Adeje (Tenerife) with 890,000 overnight stays, Palma with 755,000 overnight stays, Torremolinos with 436,000 overnight stays, or Salou with 352,000 overnight stays.
Hosbec pointed out that in the area of Valencia, Benidorm is the most important city regarding hotel industry since it represents half of the 2,048,000 overnight stays that were recorded during the month of October in Valencia. If Costa Blanca is added, the Alicante coast assumes 65 percent of the total overnight stays. Other important resorts in the region are the city of Valencia with 277,000 overnight stays, and the province of Castellón with 217,000 overnight stays.
International tourism is concentrated in the province of Alicante. The number of overnight stays of foreign hotel guests outnumbered those of Spaniards both in the community of Valencia and the provinces of Alicante and Benidorm. Only in Castellon, the domestic tourist remains the main contributor of the hotel business. 75 percent of overnight stays of foreigners in Valencia region are in Costa Blanca and nearly 60 percent in Benidorm.
Regarding hotel occupancy, compared to the average of 57.4 percent in Spain and 56.7 percent in Valencia, Benidorm and Costa Blanca reached during the month of October 89 percent and 79.9 percent respectively.
