Inside Spain: Holidays with pets and US Navy love for 'España'

If you have a pet and are looking for options to bring them with you during your summer holidays in Spain, you're not alone.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) experts in Spain have found that between 2019 and 2022, Google searches for pet-friendly accommodations skyrocketed by 93 percent, with 65,000 searches during the summer months.

In fact, researchers found that pet owners were more interested in where they could find pet-friendly hotels than the actual city or province in Spain in which to have a summer break.

Google data shows pet-themed queries have continued going up over the past three years.

In 2023, Booking.com also found that 8 million people had toggled the “admite mascotas” (allows pets) option on their website.

Logically, hoteliers and owners of all manner of tourism accommodation have clocked onto this trend, from short-term apartments to boutique hotels or camping sites.

They’ve weighed up the pros and cons, realising that there are more benefits than drawbacks given that the vast majority of pets don’t cause any problems, and that only cleaning operations have to be a bit more strenuous.

In the Galician city of Ferrol for example, almost half of all hotels now allow your pets to stay with their owners.

A national broadcaster RTVE’s programme titled ‘Pipper on Tour’, starring a Jack Russell travelling with his owner around Spain, has also proven a success (there’s also a travel guide book).

None of this is a surprise given that the latest data shows that there's now around 1 child under four for every six pets in Spain, with couples being dissuaded from having children for several key reasons.

READ MORE: The real reasons why Spaniards don’t want to have children

The increasing supply of pet-friendly accommodation in Spain contrasts with the fact that the country has the highest rate of animal abandonment in Europe, and summer is always the season when it happens the most.

If there’s a silver lining to draw, it’s the current trend among Spaniards of treating their pets like members of the family they want to take on holiday with them, rather than leaving them at a pet hotel even.

This could point to increasing awareness of animal rights and welfare in a society that isn’t traditionally famed for it.

In other news, several Spanish media outlets this week covered the existence of a handbook for US Navy arrivals at the American Naval Station in Rota, southern Spain.

This guide includes a series of tips and useful information about Spain for staff stationed there, and as the Spanish press always seems to take interest in what others think about the country, they’ve covered it.

Most of it is very positive overall, such as describing Spaniards as “kind”, “family oriented” and “with a good sense of humour”.

Local news site Diario de Cadiz has taken the most interest in what their American neighbours are learning about in this document by the US’s Naval Sea Systems Command.

They’ve picked out the most bizarre angles, such as ‘how many guns can a US soldier take to Spain?’, or the fact that the guide says queuing in Spain can involve some pushing, and they’ve published articles about it.

The Andalusian daily also remarked how the guide says some supermarket jostling "is simply the culture," citing the fact the guide is meant help their compatriots "alleviate some feelings of frustration."

Meanwhile El Confidencial Digital quoted the "unforgettable" experience US Navy personnel enjoy in this southwestern corner of Spain.

In truth, the NAVSEA document sings the praises of the country, stating “Once you set foot in Spain, you’ll realize you’re in a special place”.

There’s no evidence that this handbook is by any means new, but Spaniards can take a compliment about their country just as well as they can get outraged when an outsider criticises Spain (a patriotic knee-jerk reaction that’s not unique to the country).

What is clear is that documents such as these remind Spaniards that foreigners often have a higher opinion of Spain than they do, something confirmed by research carried out by Elcano Royal Institute.