The Southern European hospitality market experienced yet another year of high performance. In 2024, regional RevPAR increased 9.8% year over year as the allure of beaches and historic cities attracted leisure travelers from around the globe. This robust demand lifted average daily rate (ADR) 8% to EUR175 – the highest regional rate in Europe for the year.

— Source: STR

The 2024 Paris Olympics injected a significant surge of demand into the French hospitality market. Paris, naturally, witnessed the most pronounced impact, with hotels maintaining 80%+ occupancy during the two-week Games period, and peaking at 90.5% midway through.

ADR was the real winner, however, averaging EUR781 during the event. All Parisian submarkets benefited from heightened demand, though RevPAR was strongest in areas close to Olympic venues and key tourist attractions: Champs Elysees, Louvre/Marais, and Opera/Grands Boulevards. The Games didn’t just benefit Paris, however. French hotel RevPAR outside Paris increased 12.4% in July and 17.2% in August, as the Olympics spotlighted French destinations and culture beyond the capital.

— Source: STR

Spain also witnessed another remarkable year of double-digit growth, as a surge in international tourism helped propel RevPAR 11.5% ahead of 2023. Key cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, renowned for their cultural richness and vibrant nightlife, led the country, with RevPAR up 7.7% (Barcelona) and 14.0% (Madrid). Coastal destinations like the Balearic and Canary Islands also witnessed a more controversial boom in tourism. The Balearic Islands ended 2024 with 68.4% occupancy, just ahead of the pre-pandemic level, and 10.7% RevPAR growth compared to 2023. While Canary Islands’ occupancy did not quite surpass the 2019 level, rates more than impressed, growing 10.2% year over year and exceeding pre-pandemic levels by more than 37%.

Spain is not the only Southern European market struggling to incorporate such significant influx of tourism. Overtourism has emerged as a critical threat across the region, impacting popular destinations and local communities. The strain on local resources led to a variety of responses in 2024, from resident-led protests in Spain to more official government involvement like tourism taxes and visitor caps in Italy.

Despite both unorthodox and more official approaches to addressing overtourism, both occupancy and ADR in Athens, Rome, Venice, and the Spanish islands continued to climb in 2024. Forward-looking data further suggests that overtourism measures have yet to deter most travelers, as occupancy on the books continues to rise year over year for many Southern European markets even in the slower off-season.

— Source: STR

Paris eagerly awaits a year of normalization post-Olympics (2024) and Rugby World Cup (2023). Italian markets will look to continue attracting long-haul travelers via more direct flights to the U.S. and Asia Pacific regions. For the Spanish markets, balancing local needs and traveler demand will be top of mind. 

Analysis by Christina Choueifaty and Kelsey Fenerty.

About CoStar Group, Inc.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics in the property markets. Founded in 1987, CoStar Group conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of real estate information. CoStar is the global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and news, enabling clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on property values, market conditions and availabilities. Apartments.com is the leading online marketplace for renters seeking great apartment homes, providing property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked online commercial real estate marketplace with thirteen million average monthly global unique visitors. STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Ten-X offers a leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids. Homes.com is the fastest growing online residential marketplace that connects agents, buyers, and sellers. OnTheMarket is a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom. BureauxLocaux is one of the largest specialized property portals for buying and leasing commercial real estate in France. Business Immo is France’s leading commercial real estate news service. Thomas Daily is Germany’s largest online data pool in the real estate industry. Belbex is the premier source of commercial space available to let and for sale in Spain. CoStar Group’s websites attracted over 163 million average monthly unique visitors in the third quarter of 2024. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar Group maintains offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website, CoStarGroup.com, as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.

This news release includes “forward-looking statements” including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar’s expectations or beliefs regarding the future. These statements are based upon current beliefs and are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that future media events will not sustain an increase in future occupancy rates. More information about potential factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in CoStar’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and Forms 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended March 31, 2024, June 30, 2024, and September 30, 2023, each of which is filed with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” section of those filings, as well as CoStar’s other filings with the SEC available at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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