British tourist Chris Shears will swap Spain's Mediterranean beaches this summer for its rugged northern coastline as he joins millions of visitors venturing into the country's less-visited regions to observe a rare solar eclipse.
Shears, who has previously spent holidays on the Costa Brava or playing golf in southern Spain, will take his family to Galicia for the full solar eclipse on Aug. 12. He is one of 10 million foreign "astrotourists" that the Spanish government expects the eclipse to draw, with many heading to rural villages in northwestern and central Spain that lie along the eclipse's path. That's nearly as many as the 12.6 million foreign visitors who visited all of Spain last August, official data shows.
"It's a way to kill two birds with one stone. We see a life-changing event like a solar eclipse, and then we see a beautiful part of Spain that we haven't seen before," Shears said, standing in front of the caravan he plans to drive through France to Spain. Spain views the event as a chance to showcase seldom-visited parts of the country and also, ultimately, to help address concerns about overtourism on the Mediterranean coast by redistributing some of the crowds away from saturated beach resorts, the government said.
"We hope that tourists who usually stay on the coast will head inland for at least that one day – and hopefully for longer than that – to discover Spain's interior," said Secretary of State for Science Juan Cruz Cigudosa.
The tourism industry in Spain, the world's second-most visited country after France, is heavily tilted toward the Mediterranean coast.
By comparison, France's rural regions attract seven times more visitors than the Spanish countryside, according to research commissioned by Airbnb.
The expected influx of "astrotourists" is already having an impact on the sparsely populated regions commonly known as "empty Spain."
International hotel bookings in smaller cities along the eclipse path – which extends to eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands – have surged 383% so far this year, according to Amadeus data.
The event is expected to generate 362 million euros ($423.11 million) of spending by guesthouse visitors over the week of the eclipse, with 88% of that coming from foreigners. The bookings mark a tenfold rise from a year earlier in some rural areas, an Airbnb-commissioned study found.
Eclipse bookings have been made well in advance, and there has been no sign of cancellations despite geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, according to travel technology firm HBX.
The ripple effects are being felt in all manner of businesses in small communities.
Around 30,000 visitors are expected to head to an area near the Galactica Sky Observatory outside the village of Arcos de Salinas (population: 86), which offers unobstructed views of the sky.
Astronomer Alejandro Vera said he was confident the event would create repeat visitors, with two further eclipses set to take place within the next 18 months.
Meanwhile, U.S. scientists have filled an historic palace in the central region of Teruel operated by state-run hotel chain Paradores, while 12 more of its hotels in the interior of the country are almost full. The eclipse coincides with the Perseids meteor shower, which needs clear skies and low light pollution to be seen, conditions that rural regions are trying to capitalize on to promote astrotourism. They are constructing special viewpoints and adjusting street lighting to position tiny villages as long-term stargazing hubs for the future. Sara Ros, who rents rural cottages near the village of Camañas in eastern Spain, said she received her first-ever summer bookings from Britain, the United States and Germany, with many saying it was the perfect place to observe the eclipse.
Many were asking what else there was to do once there, Ros said.
"It’s an opportunity to put ourselves on the map," she said.
