A record bank holiday, as the tourism sector has valued very positively the figures registered in the province of Alicante during the May 1 long weekend, hoping that it is an indicator of a great summer.
It was a weekend in which numerous hotels were able to hang up the full sign, with many bars and restaurants also reaching their capacity and exceeding all forecasts.
The Hoteliers Association Hosbec has said that the volume of business in the hotel industry may have had an economic impact of more than twenty million euros, half of which was in Benidorm. The sector is now confident that the figures suggest that levels will be reached this summer that will far exceed the data prior to the pandemic.
In Benidorm, the general secretary of Hosbec, Nuria Montes, described as “extraordinary” the results of the long weekend in which “all expectations have been met”.
According to Hosbec data, occupancy rates were above 95%, which is considered technically full, with many establishments where it was literally impossible to find a room.
The Provincial Hotels Association of Alicante had a reservation forecast of 84.4% on Thursday and it was expected that as the weekend arrived, last-minute reservations would increase the figure even further.
By municipality, in Xàbia the expected occupancy was 92.0%, in Sant Joan and Mutxamel 90.0%, in the city of Alicante 89.3%, Playa de San Juan 88.4% and in El Campello and La Vila Joiosa 87.8%.
More than 270,000 tourists arrived through the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport, while the Civil Guard expected more than 1.5 million vehicles on the roads of the province.
Nuria Montes said that Hosbec has opened a debate on whether national, regional and local holidays should be moved to Mondays to make this type of extended holiday possible, a measure that is already working extremely well in other European countries.
