More than one decided last February that they would spend this summer on the isolated and gloomy moors of Yorkshire, in the north of England. Not by taking refuge in a place with less suffocating temperatures, but by having been stunned after seeing Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi perform on those stages in the latest audiovisual adaptation of Wuthering Heights, directed by Emerald Fennell. The film unleashed Brontëmania and caused, on the one hand, sales of the novel to skyrocket by 504% in just two days, according to data provided by Amazon; and, on the other hand, that hotels and tourist apartments in the area noticed a notable increase in occupancy.
Mia Ferullo, responsible for the digital participation of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, which is located in Haworth (England) and which preserves the old family home as well as the world's largest collection of manuscripts of the sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne, admits to La Vanguardia that there is "a renewed boom" for the life and work of this literary trio. It also puts a term on the table: readaways, or, what is the same, the vacation getaways that one arrives at after reading a book and where many times the main activity, in addition to disconnecting, is reading. A trend that is growing, according to a report published at the beginning of summer by the flight search platform Skyscanner, which reveals that 49% of people who have booked a trip this year have at some point considered doing so based on a book. The study also reveals that hotel reservations that use the “library” filter on their website have increased by 70% worldwide.
Given this context, which seems to be getting worse thanks, among other things, to the BookTok prescribing phenomenon on networks, it is not surprising that more and more tourist complexes are filling their shelves with fiction and promoting themselves as places suitable for reading retreats. Miguel Ángel Cayuela, an avid reader since he was a child, realized some time ago the growing interest in literary trips, so he decided to open Remanso, dedicated precisely to reading retreats, many of them held in these hotels or in some quiet country house. From time to time he brings together a group of readers who read an author's work together. In the three years of the company's existence, they have already had 22 trips and around 500 readers have joined their community, "with a percentage of repeaters of 30%", which shows that the traveling reading public is very loyal.
Most of the time, the author accompanies them, as Gabriela Jauregui will soon do with a group that will travel to the Mexican town of Puruagua, in Guanajuato, following the publication of Zorra (Lava); or Jacobo Bergareche, “who will star in a reading retreat for health professionals in Estellencs, in Mallorca, in autumn, taking advantage of the fact that he publishes a new book, Tío Grande (Books of the Asteroid).”
Spain is therefore not exempt from this wave of literary tourism, and this should not be a surprise, especially if one takes into account that leisure reading continues to grow in the country, since 66.2% of the population reads books in their free time, according to data from the latest Barometer of reading and book purchasing habits in Spain. More and more people are encouraged to follow in the footsteps of Don Quixote and get to know the Oviedo de La Regenta, among many others.
Then there are the newly created routes as a result of more recent literary phenomena, such as The Peninsula of Empty Houses (Siruela), by David Uclés, which has turned Quesada (in the novel, Jándula) into a new territory to take into account for lovers of literature. Catalina Moral, head of the tourism office, explains by phone to this newspaper “the notable increase in visitors that the town has seen in the last two years” and explains that, given this increase, they began to ask more frequently the reason that brought the traveler to Quesada. “Every day, a minimum of five people confess to us that they come for David.”
Barcelona, as a UNESCO city of literature since 2015, continues to be a benchmark for this type of tourism, with Sant Jordi being one of the key events that attracts an increasingly international audience. Many later incorporate routes such as La Plaça del Diamant, La Catedral del Mar or La Sombra del Viento into their journey. Although the latter has been offered for years, in 2026 it acquires renewed interest as it marks 25 years since its publication. And anniversaries are also a good excuse to start a journey. Another highlight this year is the 90th anniversary of the execution of Federico García Lorca. As a result of this anniversary, the municipality of Fuente Vaqueros, the town where the poet was born and spent his early years, admits that “it has tripled its guided tours”, as it expected a greater demand, despite the fact that it is usually already high.
For its part, the English Riviera is also preparing to receive more tourists than usual in September as a result of another death, that of Agatha Christie, whose 50th birthday will be celebrated in 2026 and who is expected to be honored at the Agatha Christie Festival, which is held from the 12th to the 20th of that month in Torquay, the place where the Lady of Crime was born. "Last year we sold around 9,000 tickets and this year the influx will be even greater, with visitors from 32 different countries. In addition to the anniversary of the death, there are other events this year that attract the public, such as the centenary of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which we celebrate with a special day, and the 50th anniversary of the publication of Miss Marple's last novel, A Sleeping Crime," Matt Newbury, promoter of the festival, responds by phone.
The writer Espido Freire usually talks about Christie when she organizes the expedition that follows in the footsteps of King Arthur. The writer has been organizing literary trips since 2016 and confesses that the first one she took was precisely the one that seems to be the most fashionable this summer, that of the Brontë sisters. "There have been many destinations these years, including Bloomsday in June, in Ireland; or in the footsteps of Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa, in Kenya; in addition to trips related to my own work," specifies the author, who does not forget another of her most popular tours, that of Jane Austen.
From the museum dedicated to the British novelist in Bath, its director, Paul Crossey, recalls the “increasing” desire to delve into the author's world. He thus mentions the Jane Austen Festival, the largest and oldest dedicated to the author, attended by readers from all over the world, many of them in Regency-era clothing, demonstrating a fervor that transcends literature.
