Hotels in Spain received 19.9 million guests in April this year which is 1% higher than the same month in 2009.  During the past 17 months hotel rates have also decreased by 3.1% according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute.

Although in 2010 Spain received 15% less Germans and  2.7% less British tourists overall more than 4.8 million guests from Germany and the UK stayed in hotels in Spain last April.

The Canary islands was also the region with the highest degree of occupancy rates in Spain during last month (60.5%) ahead of the Balearic Islands (54.5%) and Madrid (54.3%).  Tenerife was the main destination for visitors although occupancy rates in most hotels fell by 2% compared to April 2009.

The hotels with higher occupancy rates are in the tourist resorts on the islands and coasts.  Hotels in Barcelona had an occupancy rate of 66.8%, while Menorca shows the highest rates at the weekends  with 74.3%.

Madrid, Barcelona and Benidorm were the tourist spots with the highest number of guests in mainland Spain. Granada had 80.5% occupancy rate at the weekends.

The annual rate of hotel price index (HPI) was -3.1% in April, which is 0.8 higher than the same month a year ago.  The four main tourist destinations in Spain, Andalusia, Canary Islands, Catalonia and Madrid, recorded negative annual rates.

Hotel prices fell in the fourth month of this year in all categories.  The biggest decline took place in four and five star hotels and two and three star hotels, with annual rates of -4.2%, and -3.5% respectively.