There are municipalities of Aragón where the capacity of tourist accommodation far exceeds the number of people who live throughout the year. The most extreme case is in the Pyreneesor Huesca. Bonansa, in Ribagorza, has 86 inhabitants and 1,008 tourist beds, which is equivalent to about 12 places for each resident.
This is reflected in the Economic Impact of Tourism in Aragon Report 2025, which analyses the tourism intensity of municipalities through the Municipal Tourism Intensity Index (IITM). This indicator relates tourist places to the resident population and considers that a municipality exceeds the risk threshold when it has more places than inhabitants.
BONANSA, LABUERDA AND TORLA-ORDESA, IN THE LEAD
Bonansa leads the ranking of the five Aragonese municipalities with the highest critical level of tourism intensity, with an IITM of 1,172. It is followed by Labuerda, with 173 inhabitants, 1,984 tourist places and an index of 1,147. In third position is Torla-Ordesa, where 335 inhabitants live together with a capacity of 3,387 tourist places and an IITM of 1,011.
The list of the five most extreme cases is completed by Valle de Bardají, with 55 inhabitants and 420 tourist beds, and Sesué, with 116 residents and 776 beds. Their indexes reach 764 and 669 points, respectively.
The report itself explains that the Bonansa index assumes around 12 tourist places for each inhabitant and points out that, during the high season, municipalities with these characteristics can multiply between ten and 12 times their resident population in the same day. To put it in context, he expressly cites the case of Torla-Ordesa, with the capacity to accommodate 3,387 tourists simultaneously compared to its 335 inhabitants.
65 MUNICIPALITIES HAVE MORE TOURIST PLACES THAN INHABITANTS
The phenomenon goes far beyond these five villages. According to the report, 65 municipalities in Aragon have an IITM equal to or greater than 100, which means that they have more tourist places than inhabitants. They represent 8.9% of Aragonese municipalities, but concentrate 48.2% of all tourist places and only 2.1% of the population.
Within this classification, the report places 12 municipalities at a critical level, with an IITM equal to or greater than 500. Another 21 are at high level, including Sallent, Panticosa and Benasque, while 32 are at high level, where Aínsa, Bielsa and Jaca appear.
The territorial concentration is also notable. 62.9% of the tourist places in Aragon are located in only five regions, while the Pyrenean regions concentrate 49.1% of the total. The province of Huesca alone accounts for 57.1% of the tourist places in the Community. These calculations come from the report’s own preparation based on data from IAEST and OpenData Aragón from 2025.
The high tourist intensity also implies greater needs in high season. The report expressly points out the pressure that these population increases can generate on drinking water, waste collection, parking and sanitation services, especially in municipalities whose services are sized for a much smaller resident population.
