NEWS that the 'State of Alarm' in Spain will not be renewed after it ends on May 9 has caused holiday bookings to soar, especially on the islands.
Las Canteras beach in Gran Canaria
Worldwide, Spain has the second-highest number of hotel reservations for May, beaten only by the USA.
According to various booking platforms, 'staycation' reservations in Spain for the month of May have rocketed by 122%, and are already at around 60% of the figure for 2019, the last year of world 'normality'.
Searches for trips and accommodation for summer remains stable, but as the season gets closer, they are expected to rise and showing signs of heading in that direction already.
Just a few weeks ago, bookings for May had all but dried up – and then Spain's president Pedro Sánchez announced May 9 would be the last day of the 'State of Alarm' declared last year in response to the pandemic, meaning, technically, all restrictions nationwide on movement and trade should be lifted.
From that moment on, reservations shot up almost overnight.
Tourism minister Reyes Maroto said on Wednesday that bookings for the Balearic and Canary Islands, travelling from the mainland, had 'exploded'.
Other than Madrid and the Canary Islands, all regional borders are currently closed, but will reopen after May 9.
Sra Maroto has, however, warned Spain-based holidaymakers to 'act with caution', since until everyone is vaccinated, those who have not can still suffer harmful effects if they catch the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
It is believed that being vaccinated does not prevent a person catching and passing on the virus, but stops it from making them ill.
Meanwhile, holiday platform TravelgateX has reported Spain's booking numbers for the whole of the month of May are the second-highest on earth after the USA, ahead of México, Greece and Portugal, in that order, who make up the rest of the top five.
Another booking site, Destinia, says 24% of its reservations made for next month so far are for destinations in the Canary Islands, whilst 8% are for Madrid city, and 6% for the east-coast metropolitan area of Alicante, whose airport serves the southern and central Costa Blanca and which typically enjoys some of the warmest, sunniest weather in the country year-round.
So far, 60% of the May 2019 total of bookings for hotel rooms and other accommodation in key destinations have been reserved for May 2021 – figures that have not been seen since the first fortnight in September.
