THE average Spanish resident will spend between €500 and €1,500 on their holidays this year, with three in 10 set to increase their budget from last year and 16% reducing it.
Marbella foreign holidaymaker numbers 'nearly at pre-pandemic levels'
24/09/2021
EVEN quarantine measures, compulsory PCR tests and passenger locator forms have not had the negative impact on international travel expected – at least, in some parts of the country.
Marbella, for example, welcomed nearly as many foreign holidaymakers in August, one of Spain's peak tourism months, as it did in 2019 – the last 'normal' year before the pandemic and, in itself, a record season.
According to the local council in the Costa del Sol town, a total of 51,443 visitors came from overseas, and 36,023 from other parts of Spain, giving an overall 87,466 in just one month.
The difference between August 2021, with much more onerous requirements for flying, crossing borders, and proving full vaccination or taking tests where not fully immunised, and August 2019, when all anyone had to do was book a flight and board it, is negligible: Back then, 89,179 holidaymakers travelled to Marbella in that month.
These excellent figures, despite the odds, are not just the result of staycation numbers soaring – in many parts of the country, the tourism industry was kept 'alive' by a spike in national travel as Spanish residents embraced their burgeoning freedom but were reluctant to go through the hassle of taking their breaks abroad – foreigner numbers were nearly back to normal levels for the town, too.
Director-general for tourism in Marbella, Laura de Arce, says visitor numbers from The Netherlands and France 'increased significantly', not just since the pandemic started, but compared with any other, non-Covid year.
“They reached figures never seen before,” Sra de Arce reveals.
German holidaymakers were 'almost' back to levels of August 2019 and, despite quarantine still being compulsory for returners who are not fully vaccinated and a pre-arrival and 'day-two' PCR continuing to be mandatory at the time, British tourists in Marbella were surprisingly high in number.
Until October, when the UK will axe its 'green' and 'amber' lists for countries and allow entry without quarantine from all bar the high-risk 'red' list nations, a 10-day quarantine or a five-day isolation through its 'test to release' scheme is necessary for all those who have not been fully immunised at least 14 days prior to travel; from late October, only one test will be required – a cheaper lateral flow (LFT) two days after arrival – for returning holidaymakers and visitors to England, but the double PCR requirement will remain in place for now for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
This means Britain's 11,456 visitors to Marbella in August was very impressive and positive for the local tourism industry – especially as that same month in 2019, before the pandemic and Brexit, brought in 12,467, or only 1,011 more.
It bodes well for 2022 and 2023, when it is hoped life will return to more like what society, and travellers, have been used to until the turn of the decade changed everything.
Laura de Arce calls these data 'a real tonic' for Marbella and is quietly confident that future years will carry on breaking records the way each season did consistently in the latter half of the 2010s nationwide.
Marbella hotel rooms and other tourist accommodation was 81.82% full – not far off pre-Covid years, and a considerable improvement on 2020 when most holiday hotspots in Spain barely scraped 50% or 60% of the usual numbers, most of whom were residents in other parts of the country.
Costs of average hotel stays in Marbella were also on the rise – through time spent in the town, rather than accommodation becoming more expensive – being a typical €253.63.
Spending per available room averaged €208.35, 'considerably higher' than 'between 2018 and 2020', Laura de Arce confirms.
Photos: Marbella town hall
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EVEN quarantine measures, compulsory PCR tests and passenger locator forms have not had the negative impact on international travel expected – at least, in some parts of the country.
Marbella, for example, welcomed nearly as many foreign holidaymakers in August, one of Spain's peak tourism months, as it did in 2019 – the last 'normal' year before the pandemic and, in itself, a record season.
According to the local council in the Costa del Sol town, a total of 51,443 visitors came from overseas, and 36,023 from other parts of Spain, giving an overall 87,466 in just one month.
The difference between August 2021, with much more onerous requirements for flying, crossing borders, and proving full vaccination or taking tests where not fully immunised, and August 2019, when all anyone had to do was book a flight and board it, is negligible: Back then, 89,179 holidaymakers travelled to Marbella in that month.
These excellent figures, despite the odds, are not just the result of staycation numbers soaring – in many parts of the country, the tourism industry was kept 'alive' by a spike in national travel as Spanish residents embraced their burgeoning freedom but were reluctant to go through the hassle of taking their breaks abroad – foreigner numbers were nearly back to normal levels for the town, too.
Director-general for tourism in Marbella, Laura de Arce, says visitor numbers from The Netherlands and France 'increased significantly', not just since the pandemic started, but compared with any other, non-Covid year.
“They reached figures never seen before,” Sra de Arce reveals.
German holidaymakers were 'almost' back to levels of August 2019 and, despite quarantine still being compulsory for returners who are not fully vaccinated and a pre-arrival and 'day-two' PCR continuing to be mandatory at the time, British tourists in Marbella were surprisingly high in number.
Until October, when the UK will axe its 'green' and 'amber' lists for countries and allow entry without quarantine from all bar the high-risk 'red' list nations, a 10-day quarantine or a five-day isolation through its 'test to release' scheme is necessary for all those who have not been fully immunised at least 14 days prior to travel; from late October, only one test will be required – a cheaper lateral flow (LFT) two days after arrival – for returning holidaymakers and visitors to England, but the double PCR requirement will remain in place for now for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
This means Britain's 11,456 visitors to Marbella in August was very impressive and positive for the local tourism industry – especially as that same month in 2019, before the pandemic and Brexit, brought in 12,467, or only 1,011 more.
It bodes well for 2022 and 2023, when it is hoped life will return to more like what society, and travellers, have been used to until the turn of the decade changed everything.
Laura de Arce calls these data 'a real tonic' for Marbella and is quietly confident that future years will carry on breaking records the way each season did consistently in the latter half of the 2010s nationwide.
Marbella hotel rooms and other tourist accommodation was 81.82% full – not far off pre-Covid years, and a considerable improvement on 2020 when most holiday hotspots in Spain barely scraped 50% or 60% of the usual numbers, most of whom were residents in other parts of the country.
Costs of average hotel stays in Marbella were also on the rise – through time spent in the town, rather than accommodation becoming more expensive – being a typical €253.63.
Spending per available room averaged €208.35, 'considerably higher' than 'between 2018 and 2020', Laura de Arce confirms.
Photos: Marbella town hall
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