16 October 2026 · Tasch Turner
16.1%: what free government data told us about who really stays in Murcia
Original market research used to mean a big invoice and a long wait. For one of our own ventures, we needed an answer to a simple question: is the Region of Murcia a genuine long-stay market, or just another holiday coast?
We started where most businesses do, by briefing a market research company. Then we realised much of what we needed was already published, free, by the Spanish government. It just wasn't arranged to answer our question.
The data was sitting there
Spain's National Statistics Institute runs a border survey of international visitors every month, and a separate survey of what they spend. Both are published, both are detailed, and very few businesses use them directly.
We built research engines on those sources. Nothing exotic: careful downloads, clear definitions, and code that turns thousands of rows into answers to specific commercial questions. We call the result Seasons by Passport.
What it showed
Across 2023 to 2025, 16.1% of international visitors to the Region of Murcia stayed more than 15 nights, according to the border survey.
Looking at stays of 30 nights or more in 2025, the Region of Murcia came in at 7.9% of international tourists. The Valencia region was 5.4%, Andalucía 3.9%, and Spain as a whole 2.8%. Murcia attracts proportionally more long stays than its better-known neighbours.
The month-by-month view was just as useful. Nordic visitors who arrive in winter stay longest: in February, 15.9% of Nordic arrivals stayed more than 15 nights. Germans arriving in January were the highest of all, at 16.4%. Summer arrivals mostly come and go.
That's not a hunch about "snowbirds". It's a seasonal pattern, by nationality, from the country's own statistics, that a business can plan marketing, pricing and product around.
From research to content
Research that stays in a spreadsheet does very little. We published ours as Estancia, an 18-page magazine, and built Test Drive Spain, a quiz that matches people to a region based on how they want to live. The same evidence now does three jobs: it informs decisions, it builds credibility and it gives people something worth reading.
What this means for your business
Your market probably has its own version of this. Government agencies, industry bodies and regulators publish detailed data that most businesses never touch, because it looks dry and arrives in awkward formats.
With the right questions and a bit of patience, that data can tell you where demand is, when it peaks and who it comes from. Original research no longer needs a big invoice. It needs someone who knows what to ask and how to check the answer.
And once you have it, you have something your competitors don't: evidence, in your name, that people want to read.
