Spanish hoteliers say they are confident of recovery in the sector over the summer with business approaching pre-pandemic levels but inflationary pressures and other concerns could still have a negative impact on the peak season.
“Tourism is back and it looks like this summer will be a good one compared to recent years when we were hit by COVID-19 and the resulting restrictions,” Jorge Marichal, the president of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourism Accommodations (CEHAT) said at a press conference.
CEHAT groups together 51 regional hotel and hospitality associations across Spain representing a total of 16,000 properties
According to a study carried out by the confederation in conjunction with consulting firm PwC, in the second quarter of this year 9.2 million foreign travelers entered Spain, or 87 per cent of the number in 2019.
In the same April to June period, 9.4 million Spaniards traveled domestically, compared with 9 million in 2019.
“Reservations for this July and September are already double those of 2021 so we’re expecting total tourism levels to be around 97 per cent of the last year before the pandemic struck,” he said.
Marichal noted that summer hotel reservations in Spain’s urban destinations, especially Madrid and Barcelona, were triple that of last year and group travel was also on the rise.
This demand is reflected in recent Spanish press reports which noted that the country’s major chains – Meliá, RIU, Barceló and NH - have raised room rates by an average of between 5 and 15 percent over the summer months at their Spanish urban and resort properties.
However, hotel cancelation rates were almost 20 per cent higher last month than in June 2019 with the CEHAT president attributing the rise to the flexibility in hotel cancelation policies offered during the pandemic and some uncertainty regarding the international economic outlook.
International Interest
In a survey of potential travelers in major European generating markets, interest in visiting Spain was 50 per cent higher than in 2019 in Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Italy and the Netherlands, according to the report, while interest from British travelers is around the same as three years ago.
Cayetano Soler of PwC said there was concern about the market in the United Kingdom, Spain’s biggest tourism generator, because of the recent fall in the value of the pound against the euro.
“This has affected British tourists who will now have less spending power when they come to Spain and that could harm the recovery in that market from which 18 million Britons traveled here in 2019,” he said.
“However on the plus side, the near parity we’re seeing between the U.S. dollar and the euro should help boost travel from the United States,” he added.
There is also unease in the Spanish hospitality sector over other economic factors such as inflation which is hitting travel plans by potential guests as well as driving up hotel operating costs from price increases in energy and food.
Other worries include recent strikes by employees at European airlines serving Spain, and long lines and scenes of chaos at some European airports as authorities wrestle with staff shortages caused by cuts during the pandemic.
“We’re still better off than we have been over the past several years as travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic have been almost all removed and people want to travel again,” CEHAT Secretary-General Ramón Estalella told reporters.
“It’s true that there has been a recent spike in the new variant of Covid but it seems it is not as dangerous as before when people were concerned about getting severely ill in a foreign country.
“Spain is still a very attractive destination for European tourists as it is considered safe, it is relatively close to our major markets and it is familiar to so many,” he added.