Spanish hotels registered 35.1 million visitors in July which is an increase of 7.2% compared to the same month last year. According to the National Institute of Statistics prices have fallen for the 20th consecutive month and registered a decrease of 0.8% last month.

The increase in hotel visitors is not only a result of an increase in Spanish tourists (1.8% more than a year ago) but the number of foreigners visiting Spain has also increased by 4.5%. In July almost 7 million (6.97 million) foreign tourists visited Spain which is the biggest increase since May 2008.

The average length of stay is 3.7 nights per visitor which is a decrease of 1.4% compared to the same month in 2009. This is a negative result for hoteliers given that they place more importance on the number of nights stay rather than the number of visitors passing through their doors.

Hotels received on average 47.2 euros per room per night which is 2.5 euros more than a year ago. During the first 7 months of 2010 overnight stays in hotels have increased by 5% compared to the same period last year.