Posts Tagged ‘ Spanish tourism ’

As you will know by now, the biggest booking time is just after Christmas. If it is mild, bookings tend to drop. If the weather is bad bookings go up. And that seems to be just what has happened this year. Although the snow hit most of us before Christmas, there was still quite heavy snowfall in the north and Scotland afterwards. The first reports seem to suggest that bookings are well up on last year. By 18%. Bad weather makes us think about holidays more.

Now that most of our airports are open again, you might fancy getting away to southern Spain, the Canaries or the Balearics for a bit of warmth. Forget it. Spanish air controllers, almost as one, have called in sick. This serious, contagious epidemic is apparently anti-governmentitis. Upset with the government cutbacks, air controllers who have always been fairly volatile in Spain, decided to protest by calling in sick. Those who did turn up face a herculean task in keeping flights going. Barcelona, in the north, is rumoured to be operating, albeit a much reduced service but trying to get into the official Aena websites is slow at present. Madrid is closed till 1pm this afternoon, but one report says Spanish airspace may be closed until 6pm tonight.

Figures recently released show that the slowdown in us visiting both Spain and the United States have ended. During July, the numbers of Britons visiting Spain rose by 4.5% and to the Us by up to 9%. This would seem to show two things; that the weakening euro has encouraged us to go back to visiting countries we found expensive last year and that the rise in Air Passenger Duty last November is not affecting our desire to travel long-haul

From the late 1950’s when Benidorm launched itself as a tourist destination, we have loved going to Spain for our holidays. The seventies led to a string of comedy films and TV series exploiting our interest in Spain for a holiday. As Spanish resorts adapted to changing holiday wishes in the nineties and this decade it seemed our love affair would never end.
Some “experts” are now saying the appeal of Spain is declining and quote figures from the Spanish Tourism, Commerce & Industry Ministry which has announced that in 2009 8.1% fewer of us visited Spain.

Over the summer we have heard a lot about the decline in the numbers of people travelling to Spain and its islands. Nonetheless, Spain, the Balearic Islands and the Canaries are still the most popular destinations for us when we go abroad. Given all year round warm weather, the Canaries are popular throughout the year. Now the Balearics, (Ibiza, Menorca and Majorca) are trying to convince us that they are winter destinations as well.

The three main Balearic islands had a 12% drop in visitors this year from the UK and more in the case of Ireland. Now they are pushing for more of us to visit the islands when special events are being held or just to enjoy the sports facilities that have been built there. Recently, Rafael Nadal was used to push that message to the travel trade.

We have had a love affair with Spain for decades. It is our most popular overseas destination so much so that for years, the holiday in Spain has been parodied by the Carry On team, a soap was set there and at least two comedy series. So for nearly 40 years, Spain has played a big part in our holiday plans. So much so that there are a lot of us have holiday homes there, partly helped by the no-frills airlines who gave us cheap
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I’ve had some e-mails lately from friends abroad asking me whether it is as bad in Britain as their local media tells them. My answer is to say that it’s not great and there is nervousness but it is nowhere as bad as in some places.Take Las Vegas for example. It relies heavily in tourists and consequently they have been hit badly as people save their money in case they need it for some time in the future. Revenue from the casinos is down by
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