Hotels across the Canary Islands recorded almost 229,000 additional overnight stays in July compared with the same month last year, as more than one million guests checked into hotels, despite the archipelago seeing a slight drop in arrival figures overall.

New tourism figures show that the Canary Islands hotel sector continued to grow during one of the busiest periods of the year, with increases in both the number of guests and the total number of nights spent in hotels, compared to other types of holiday accommodation.

According to the latest tourism data, hotels across the islands registered 6,781,369 overnight stays during July 2026, which represents an increase of 228,743 nights, or 3.49%, compared with July 2025, when hotels recorded 6,552,626 overnight stays.

The number of people choosing hotel accommodation also increased substantially.

A total of 1,058,995 guests stayed in hotels in the Canary Islands during July, compared with 999,568 during the same month last year. That means hotels accommodated almost 60,000 more people year-on-year during the month.

More foreign and Spanish guests

Growth was recorded among both international visitors and people travelling from other parts of Spain.

The number of foreign guests staying in Canary Islands hotels increased from 715,913 in July 2025 to 748,524 this July.

There was also a notable increase in guests who are residents of Spain, rising from 283,655 to 310,471.

However, although more people stayed in hotels and the overall number of overnight stays increased, visitors spent slightly less time in their accommodation on average.

The average hotel stay fell from 6.56 nights in July last year to 6.40 nights this year.

The figures underline the continuing importance of tourism to the Canary Islands during the summer months, despite July traditionally facing strong competition from mainland Spain and other Mediterranean destinations.

They also provide an interesting indication of how visitor behaviour is changing. More people are staying in hotels, but their average stay is becoming slightly shorter.

Canary Islands outperform national growth in overnight stays

Across Spain as a whole, hotel overnight stays also increased, but at a considerably slower rate.

Nationally, the total rose from approximately 44.69 million overnight stays in July 2025 to 44.85 million in July this year.

By comparison, the Canary Islands recorded year-on-year growth of 3.49%.

The figures are particularly significant for the islands because accommodation occupancy is one of the clearest measures of the economic impact of tourism. Visitor arrival figures alone do not show how long tourists stay or how much accommodation capacity is actually being used.

For hotels, restaurants, bars, excursion companies and other businesses dependent on tourism, overnight stays provide an important indication of the number of visitors remaining in destinations and spending money within the local economy.