Since the Covid pandemic broke out in March 2020, the Costa Blanca has lost 80% of tourists from the United Kingdom, compared to the record-breaking year of 2019.
The latest data published by airport operator Aena reveals that between January and November of this year, a total of 1,259,079 British passengers used Alicante-Elche airport, compared to the 5.9 million in the same period of 2019. A figure which is not expected to rise during December, with figures expected to be similar to last year.
The data is particularly concerning for the tourism sector, given that the British tourist market represents 40% of the foreign total in the province of Alicante.
November was not, however, in general terms, a bad month at the provincial airport, serving 704,527 passengers, seven times more than in the same month of 2020, but 230,000 fewer tourists than in 2019. Experts estimate that air traffic in Europe will not have recovered until 2024, because any negative news about the pandemic returns flights almost to the starting point. In terms of tourist-emitting destinations until November, London has seen 350,000 tourists so far this year, a ridiculous figure compared to the first eleven months of 2019, when three million passengers arrived from Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, and Heathrow.
In this sense, the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (Cehat), of which the Hosbec hotel association is part, added new negative data yesterday. The employers showed their dismay at the cancellation of reservations in Spain by the British as a result of the decision of Spain and the EU to require children between 12 and 16 from the United Kingdom to have a complete vaccination schedule, something which the association believe is not possible given that vaccination of minors is relatively recent.
Cehat says this measure has led to tens of thousands of booking cancellations by UK citizens. Specifically, reservations have fallen by 60% in two weeks and one of the main British operators has already seen some 60,000 reservations affected by the measure. This week the average hotel occupancy does not exceed 30%, according to Hosbec.
The confederation emphasises that the vaccination of children in the United Kingdom has only started a few weeks ago and there is no time to give two vaccines in that period. The Canary Islands, the Mediterranean coast, and some cities with great family tourism on winter dates will have to cancel many reservations because there will be family members who cannot travel despite presenting negative tests, according to Jorge Marichal, president of the confederation, who only two weeks ago indicated on a visit to Benidorm that he thought the worst of the pandemic had passed.
The association says it does not understand why children from other countries of the Schengen area (European Union) with a higher incidence of covid cases than the United Kingdom can enter Spain without being vaccinated and only with an antigen test, while it is not allowed for British children.
Marichal warned on Tuesday that the restriction is a “hard blow” for the winter season throughout Spain and that he does not understand why the same protocols are not established for all children and families who wish to travel to Spain this Christmas, Therefore, suggesting a regulation “according to common sense.”
Hosbec warned that the sixth wave of Corona virus has impacted “strongly” on tourism and has caused hotel occupancy in the Valencian Community to be at a minimum since the lifting of the state of alarm. In a statement, it emphasises that the impact is “much greater” than the previous wave of infections “despite the fact that the levels of severity and hospitalisation are much lower this time while the vaccinated population is at its highest”.
Valencian tourist destinations had an average occupancy of around 40% although open establishments vary. In Benidorm and Castellón 50% of hotels are already closed, Valencia “holds” with 90% of hotels open and the Costa Blanca is around 70% on average. However, Hosbec predicts that “the worst is yet to come”, given that the forecasts for this week are “devastating”: between 25% and 29% in all the areas for which figures are available.
