Murcia hotels smash tourism records with over 1.5 million visitors in 2025

More visitors chose to stay in hotels in 2025, as privately rented tourist apartments saw a decline

Hotels across the Region of Murcia ended 2025 with their strongest results on record. The Region saw more visitors and overnight stays than ever before. Growth was also higher than the national average, according to new figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

Over the year, hotels in the Region hosted just over 1.5 million travellers, a 3% increase on 2024. Across Spain as a whole, growth was lower, at 1.9%. It is the first time Murcia has reached 1.5 million hotel guests in a single year.

Of those visitors, 1.18 million were from Spain, up 1.8%, while 361,800 came from abroad, an increase of 7.1%. International travellers played a key role in pushing the overall numbers higher. Hotels in the Region also recorded 3.55 million overnight stays in 2025, up 3.2% compared with the previous year. Nationally, overnight stays rose by just 1%.

Again, Spanish visitors still made up the bulk of overnight stays, accounting for around 2.6 million, up 2.4%. Stays by international visitors also rose, increasing by 5.5%.

A strong December rounded off this record year. Hotels welcomed 97,240 travellers during the month, the highest December figure on record. International tourism stood out, with almost 18,000 foreign visitors, up 17.5% and well ahead of the national average.

More hotel stays and fewer tourist rentals

With all the news about illegal tourist rentals and their impact on the local property market, some people are now wary of Airbnb-style apartments. More and more travellers are turning back to hotels but this can work out more expensive, especially for families. The statistics also show that the hotels in the Region of Murcia are still pretty reasonably priced, which may be part of the draw to this area. In 2025, the average daily rate was €76.40, compared with a national average of €127.70.

As a result of this, these tourist apartments hosted fewer visitors than in 2024, with a drop of around 16%.

Because of this demand, there has been a lot of investment in the hotel sector over the past few years. The number of hotel beds has risen by more than 11% and the number of actual hotels has grown from 213 to 257.

Several new four-star hotels opened in 2025, including a hotel-apartment complex in Los Narejos, a renovated hotel at the Port of Cartagena, and a new hotel in Molina de Segura. More projects have already been planned for 2026 and beyond. These include new five-star hotels like the one by Alhama Nature and some major refurbishments to existing hotels.

Campsites and rural tourism in the Region also recorded strong figures, still largely driven by Spanish travellers.

So, with more visitors choosing the Region of Murcia, the challenge now is to manage the growth and make sure it pays off in the long term. Hotels need to keep prices reasonable while investing in better services and facilities. At the same time, the sector has to remain strong all year, not just in the busy summer months.

Image 1: Carm
Image 2: Archive