Hotel nights booked in Spain in October fall 83% on travel restrictions

MADRID (Reuters) - The number of nights booked by tourists in Spanish hotels fell 83% in October compared with the same month a year ago as travel restrictions ravaged the tourism industry, data from the INE national statistics office showed on Tuesday.

The October data was worse than the 78% fall recorded in September after new measures were taken throughout the country to stop a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

Despite a slight uptick in activity after Spain emerged from a strict coronavirus lockdown in June, overall hotel bookings in the first ten months of the year have slumped 72% compared with the same period a year earlier, INE said.

Tourism, which accounts for about 12% of Spain's economic output, has been devastated since the pandemic brought global travel to a grinding halt.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Jose Elías Rodríguez; Editing by Emma Pinedo and Angus MacSwan)