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Beach Cala Fornells, Mallorca Spain’s Tourist Numbers Expected To Reach 90% Of Pre-Covid Levels This Summer Spain News

The rise in inflation doesn’t seem to be putting off northern Europeans from booking their vacations, as holiday bookings to Spain are up from those made in 2019.

In fact this summer, Spain expects tourist levels to reach 90 per cent of those recorded prior to the pandemic. Speaking on Thursday, Secretary of State for Tourism, Fernando Valdes said that "Inflation is so far not dampening peak summer season demand."

He said he was confident that the tourism sector in one of the most popular holiday destinations, would see a huge increase in tourists, with figures that are comparable to some of the strongest years prior to the Covid pandemic. He declared that "It is a solid recovery in difficult conditions."

According to preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute (NIE), in June, Spain saw its rate of inflation increase to 10.2 per cent. This is the first time since 1985 that the 10 per cent margin has been topped.

Simultaneously, data from market intelligence company ForwardKeys, shows that bookings for July and August have already reached 90 per cent of those in 2019.

Holiday reservations from Sweden have seen an increase of almost 79 per cent, compared to the levels from the summer prior to the Covid pandemic. Danish bookings are also higher by 46 per cent compared to 2019, with more Brits and Germans expected to flock to Spain’s sunny shores once again this summer.

Visitors from these countries may have increased, but the number of tourists visiting from the US has dropped by 4 per cent.

According to official figures, seat capacity on the airlines for the summer months is 8 per cent lower than before the pandemic and flight cancellations have not played any part in this.

As cabin crew from budget airline Ryanair hold another strike today, Thursday, June 30, Spain’s cabin crew union, USO said that 28 of its flights to and from the country had been cancelled and that people should expect more delays until midday.

Ryanair said that despite the strikes which began last weekend, less than 3% of its flights to and from Spain have been affected.

There could be more disruption next month as cabin crew from easyJet will be holding three, 72-hour strikes across the month of July. The current scheduled dates are 1-3 July, 15-17 July and 29-31 July.

Spanish airports that will be affected by the strikes include Barcelona’s El Prat Airport (BCN),
Malaga Airport (AGP) and Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI).

Source

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/spain-sees-summer-tourism-90-104011657.html