Galicia

Travelers staying in Galician rural tourism establishments fell by 1% in January, to 4,459, according to data published this Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Specifically, by province, Ourense registered the largest number of travelers staying, with 1,684, followed by Lugo, with 1,155. Meanwhile, 890 people stayed in the rural houses of A Coruña in January and 730 in Pontevedra.
Overnight stays in the first month of the year reached 7,121,9.4% less than a year ago. Rural occupation in this period, according to the INE, was 5.07% of the vacancies – 12.14% on weekends – and 6.26% of the rooms. Prices increased by almost 8.5 points.
On the other hand, the Galician campsites experienced in the first month of 2018 a growth of 2.6% in their number of travelers accommodated, up to 118. Overnight stays, on the other hand, decreased by almost 18% to 206, as the average stay dropped from 2.18 days in January 2017 to 1.75 days last month.
Finally, 3,556 travelers stayed in Galician tourist apartments during the month of January, 10% less than a year ago. Most of these travellers, 3,135, were Spanish, while 421 were foreign. As regards overnight stays, these decreased by 13% compared to a year earlier, to 10,246. The average stay also dropped to 2.88 days.
Female over 40, rural tourist profile
According to data published by the portal of rural houses Clubrural. com, collected through a survey, the regular consumer of rural tourism in 2017 was female, over 40 years and invested more than 25 euros. According to these data, 41.68% of the total public in 2017 was over 45 years of age while between 41 and 45 years were 20.33%. Rural tourism has not yet conquered those between 18 and 25 years old (4.70%) and 26 and 30 years old (5.25%).
With regard to sex, it is women who have the most preference for this type of tourism, with 75.31% who opted for nature and small towns for their holidays. However, only 24.70% of the rural public are male.
Spending and seasonality
The most frequent average expenditure among rural tourism travelers is between 26 and 30 euros per person per night and, therefore, although rural tourism is more economical than other types of tourism, travelers do not skimp on investing more money in their getaways. Finally, in terms of the times at which this type of accommodation is chosen, half of tourists (49.27%) prefer to travel on weekends, while 18.99% chose bridges for their journeys. On the other hand, summer holidays are another highlight in rural tourism. 14.64% chose? these months to travel and stay in a rural establishment, with May being the preferred month for rural tourism. In general terms, it can be seen that it is the first half of the year that arouses most interest among tourists.