Ávila closed the month of November at the head of rural tourism.
The 11,000 travelers and the 25,000 overnight stays place it respectively first and second province at the national level.
The latest data released by the National Institute of Statistics leave the province in a very good place in terms of the occupation of rural tourism establishments. These are the figures for last November, when Ávila was once again the first province in number of visitors and second in overnight stays, just behind Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Data that is backed by 11,010 visitors or what is the same, 7.7 percent more than the figure for the same month in 2006; and also by the number of overnight stays, as it reached 25,078, 16 percent more than the number of overnight stays recorded at the time.
Ávila once again recovers the leading positions in terms of rural tourism and also improves in some variables more than those taken into account by the National Institute of Statistics. Thus, the average stay of the visitor was 2.28 days compared to 2.12 a year ago; the number of rural accommodation continues its upward trend and goes from 502 that were open in November 2006 to 555, which increases the number of places offered by 12.86 percent or what is the same: pass from 3,754 then to 4,237 today.
One of the most significant data of this survey that was released by the INE refers to the personnel employed by the sector and that has gone from 648 workers to 899, that is, the number of workers has increased by 251 in one year. which amounts to almost 40 percent more jobs created in the sector.
Taking into account all these data, the conclusion is also drawn that Ávila is the first Castilian and Leonese province in terms of rural tourism data. Its more than 11,000 visitors and 25,000 overnight stays make it quite a distance from its immediate pursuer in the region, which would be Segovia, with 6,615 visitors and just over 14,890 overnight stays. Salamanca would be in third place in the region with more than 5,400 visitors and 14,043 overnight stays. However, the latter exceeds Ávila in terms of the average stay, since in this case it is almost 2.6 days compared to 2.3 in Ávila. The good data from the province of Ávila with respect to the region is not surprising, since the more than 11,000 travelers account for almost a quarter of the 46,200 registered in Castilla y León and its 25,000 overnight stays, around 22 percent of the almost 112,000 total.