Girona, February 5th 2022

In 2021 the province of Girona received 5,668,696 tourists, who generated 17,057,303 overnight stays.

In 2021 the global health and financial crisis caused by COVID-19 continued to have a huge impact. According to data from the Observatory of the Eurecat Foundation’s Department of Tourism Innovation, in 2021 the province of Girona received 5,668,696 tourists, 28% less than 2019, generating 17,057,303 overnight stays, a drop of 34% from 2019.

By tourism brands, the Costa Brava registered 4,916,529 tourists who generated 15,296,879 overnight stays. The Girona Pyrenees received 752,167 tourists who generated 1,760,424 overnight stays.

Visitors to the Costa Brava were mainly from the Catalan market (with 2.5 million tourists). In second place were those from the French market (with 700,284 tourists), followed in third place by the rest of Spain (with 663,950 tourists), in fourth position by the Dutch market (with 376,556 tourists), and in fifth place by the German market (with 171,902). In the Girona Pyrenees, the number of tourists per market confirms the importance of the Catalan market (with 664,615 tourists), followed by those from the rest of Spain (with 45,624 tourists) and, in third place, the French market (with 13,596 tourists).

In 2021, the province of Girona had 267,062 places available in regulated tourist accommodation divided among hotels, apartments, campsites and rural tourism establishments, with an average overall occupation level of 30%. The average number of overnight stays on the Costa Brava was 3.1 nights, while in the Girona Pyrenees this figure remained stable with an overall average for all types of accommodation at 2.3 nights.

In 2021 Girona-Costa Brava Airport recorded 312,897 users, a drop of 84% compared with 2019, with those who most used the airport in Girona being German passengers with 67,577 users, followed by 47,911 British passengers.

Finally, cruise activity in the ports of Palamós and Roses, as seen in all the Mediterranean cruise ports, was also seriously affected by the COVID-19 crisis, with only nine scheduled cruise stops which brought 3,947 passengers –mostly British and American– in the last season which began in the final quarter of the year.