The month of February has confirmed the popularity of the Alicante province with tourists, as hotel occupancy in the month has broken records once again, according to the statistics released by the Alicante Provincial Hotel Association (APHA).
The province has registered a hotel occupancy rate of 77.7% in the second month of the year, “an extraordinary value that exceeds that achieved in 2023 by 14.2 percentage points and is the historical record for February”, according to official spokespersons of the association.
Of course, with higher prices blamed on various global factors, not only has occupancy improved, so has the profitability indicators, with increases in the average daily rate that exceed those registered a year ago by 7 percentage points, although the hotels are yet to reveal how much profit has increased. Revenue per available room however is a well over inflation 30.7% higher than those recorded in February 2023, according to the same sources.
It is worth noting that the hotel sector was against the so-called “Tourist Tax” which would add a maximum of 2 euro per night on the price of a 5-star hotel, just 50 cents for a basic hotel, as they argued an increase in prices would be detrimental to the sector, unproven to be true in other areas where the tax already exists, and demonstratively false if they themselves have increased the prices by more than 30 percent, which, in context and basic form, means that if a basic hotel room cost 50 euro per night last year, the hotels themselves have increased the rate by 15 euro per night, compared to the 50 cents per night they argued against, and boosted their profits rather than adding a contribution to the local services that the tax was intended to.
In the detailed breakdown by municipality, the occupancy rate of the city of Alicante stood at 83.3%, while Playa de San Juan reached 90.0%, both unprecedented values for February. Other locations have had more moderate values. Xàbia has stood at 62.6%, Dénia at 57.6%, Santa Pola at 59.1%, Sant Joan d’Alacant at 66.0%, Alcoy at 69.0%, Orihuela at 58.7%, Algorfa at 40.8% and Guardamar del Segura at 30.0%.
International demand has been the majority and has concentrated 58.6% of the clientele, while national tourists have accounted for 41.4%. Of the international clients, those from the United Kingdom stand out (26.1%), followed by those from Poland (6.9%), Germany (6.0%), France (5.6%), Norway (5.4%), Netherlands (4.8%) or Italy (3.5%). For their part, national visitors come largely from the Valencian Community itself (31.1%), the Community of Madrid (24.0%), Catalonia (9.7%), Andalusia (8.3%), Castilla La Mancha (6.1%), Region of Murcia (5.1%), and Castilla y León (2.6%).
Finally, APHA forecasts indicate that March will continue with positive occupancy rates and profitability indicators that maintain the favourable trend, as this year the beginning of Holy Week coincides with this month.
