Chasing the shadow: Rural bookings in Spain triple ahead of solar eclipse, Airbnb says

March 3 (Reuters) - Bookings at rural Spanish destinations along the path of a total solar eclipse on August 12 have more than tripled year-on-year driven by rising international demand, vacation rental firm Airbnb said on Tuesday.

The eclipse - whose path of totality will sweep across the Arctic Ocean, eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain - is expected to draw flocks of visitors to small towns and countryside areas with clearer skies and limited traditional hotel capacity, according to internal data and a survey commissioned by the company.

• Reservations in non-urban areas along the eclipse route for August 10-16 rose 210% from a year earlier, according to Airbnb's internal data as of end-2025.

• Villages in the Aragon, Navarre, Rioja, Castile-La Mancha and Castile and Leon regions recorded up to 10 times more bookings for the period than in the previous year.

• Similar locations in Galicia, Asturias and the Basque Country saw bookings more than quadruple.

• France, Britain and the United States account for more than half of international accommodation searches for stays along the route, with Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium representing about one-third.

• European travellers planning to stay along the route expect to spend an average of 680 euros ($789) per trip, around 100 euros more than Spanish travellers, according to an Opinium survey conducted for Airbnb between January 23 and February 2 of this year.

• Families and groups of three or more people accounted for 74% of searches for the week of the eclipse, while couples represented 20% and solo travellers 7%.

  ($1 = 0.8624 euros)