According to official figures published by the Spanish Institute of Tourism Studies (IET-Familitur), Spaniards made a total of 166.2 million trips in 2006, 3.2% down from the year before.
Of this total, 155.7 million trips were made within Spain and 10.7 million abroad (down 3.2% and up 1.6%, respectively, from 2005).
Trips made by Spanish residents in 2006 generated a total of 751.6 million overnight stays, with an average stay of 4.5 days per trip (4.2 for trips made within Spain and 8.9 for those made abroad.
Although the autonomous communities with the largest amount of outgoing tourists in 2006 were those with the largest populations (Madrid, Catalonia and Andalusia), other communities with lower populations – the Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarra, Aragon, Asturias, Castilla y Leon and Extremadura – registered an above average number of outgoing tourists.
Seasonality is one of the most outstanding characteristics of Spanish residents’ travelling habits. One out of each three trips was made during the summer (July and August) and Easter (April).
National destinations
In 2006, the coastal resorts of Andalusia, Catalonia and the autonomous community of Valencia were the top destinations with Spanish residents.
Compared with 2005, all the Spanish autonomous communities, except for Asturias (+2,5%), Castilla y León (+2,6%), Extremadura (+10,8%) and Galicia (+1,7%), registered a drop in arrivals from the rest of Spain.
In 2006, 81.6% of all trips within Spain were made without booking. On the other hand, 65.1% of trips made abroad were booked before, package tours making up 20.2% of the total.
A total of 12.5% of all trips were planned using the Internet. Of this total, 93.6% of travellers used the Web to find information, 48% to book their trip, and 16.8% to pay for all costs.
