The vacation village market - Spain

1.1 Definition and presentation

Vacation villages are vacation and vacation resorts with a large number of buildings (chalets, bungalows, apartments, etc.) offering hotel services and leisure activities. There are several types of vacation village, depending on the quality of the services provided (top-of-the-range, mid-range, etc.) and the destination (sea, mountains, countryside, etc.).

At European level, there were 588,000 accommodation establishments in the EU in 2015, including hotels, campsites but also leisure parks and vacation centers. Vacation villages accounted for around 5% of total accommodation establishments, and have seen significant growth. While the covid-19 crisis had a heavy impact on accommodation establishments in 2020 and, to a lesser extent, in 2021, vacation villages held up much better than the sector average. They have benefited from a positive image among holidaymakers, with large open-air spaces that reassure them of their social distance from enclosed structures, while meeting the need for space among families who have experienced the confinement of the city.

In Spain, the vacation village market took a nosedive in 2020, with a collapse in tourist flows to the peninsula and health fears. However, the upturn in tourism in 2021, and even more so in 2022, means that operators can breathe easy and continue to invest in Spain. This is particularly true of Pierre & Vacances, which continues to step up its presence in Spain.