Jorge Hinojosa
IN a sure sign that things are returning to normal, industry insiders report that British holidaymakers again outnumber Spanish visitors to Benidorm for the first time since the pandemic hit two years ago.
Figures for the month of March show that British hotel guests were by far the largest group by nationality, according to the Valencian hotel association Hosbec.
“British tourists have again become the majority group in Benidorm,” Hosbec’s Nuria Montes told the Olive Press.
“For the first time since the pandemic started, they outnumber Spanish tourists in market share,” she said.
Despite the fact that last month was the wettest March on record in living memory, visitor numbers soared.
During the last week of March, hotel occupancy in Benidorm was registered at 68,9%. And the first weekend of April it rose to 78,1%.
“It confirms the positive forecasts that the sector will bounce back to what it was before the Covid-19 pandemic,” Montes added.
The data shows that 44,6% of tourists who visited Benidorm during March were from the UK with industry insiders expecting there to be little to no negative impact on bookings as a result of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
“At the moment the war in Ukraine is not affecting hotel bookings in negative terms. On the international side, Spain is considered a safe destination in the European environment without restrictions or difficulties for the arrival of tourists” she added.
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