In 2019 British tourism on the Costa Blanca has got off to an extremely slow start, weighed down, as it is, by the negative effect of Brexit that has been translated into a reduction of 15% in British bookings for next summer.
According to Nuria Montes, secretary general of the hoteliers association Hosbec, as a result of the fall, alarm bells are now beginning to ring in the sector.
Montes remains cautious however, noting that the fall contrasts sharply with the forecasts of airline Jet2.com which already has high season flights on sale to Alicante-Elche, forecasting growth of 8% with a total of 1.4 million seats, 110,000 more than last year, between Alicante and nine UK cities: Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, East Midlands, Newcastle Birmingham and London-Gatwick.
However, the most worrying fact is the sharp drop in actual holiday bookings during January, one of the strongest months of the year, with only 46,000 packages sold, in comparison to the 54,000 in January 2018, which represents a reduction of -15%.
The Balearic Islands follow the same trend as the Costa Blanca while the Canary Islands have completely confusing data: Gran Canaria falls by 7%, while Tenerife grows by 4%.
Meanwhile, competing markets, like Turkey and Egypt (which are not part of the European Union) show a sales growth rate of over 40% for the summer.
