Spain lost 83% of international tourism this summer due to the pandemic
Spanish tourism broke highs in 2019 with the arrival of more than 83 million tourists. And this year it is on the way to closing another record, but due to the fall: in the first nine months they have barely reached 17 million. In the most important season of the year for the sector, from June to September, 6,250,000 foreign visitors arrived, a decrease of 83% compared to the 37 million of the previous summer, as published on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics ( INE). French tourists were the ones who trusted Spain the most and their number fell by 63%, while Americans were the most skeptical and 96% avoided the peninsula.
Javier Gándara, president of the Air Lines Association, assures that Spain has not been an exception and that the drop in international traffic has been widespread. “A part of tourism [que venía a España] they have gone to other destinations, such as Portugal or Greece, but most have stayed at home or have traveled within their country ”.
The economic consequences will be devastating at the end of the year. This sector contributed in 2018 to the generation of 12% of Spanish GDP, up to 147,000 million euros, according to the latest satellite account prepared by the INE, and brought together 2.6 million employees. But this year, international tourist spending during the summer has been cut by 86% due to the pandemic and between January and September it accumulates a fall of 75%. In total, 55.8 billion euros thrown overboard in the first nine months of the year.
From the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation they recognize that the sector has no hope of recovering with the Christmas campaign due to the restrictions of the second wave. “It is a scourge that we are going to have in the coming months,” says Jorge Marichal, president of the confederation. “The confinements of Germany and the United Kingdom will make it very difficult for us to have foreign visitors in the coming months, at such an important time for the country, especially in areas such as the Canary Islands, where winter is high season.”
The economic reopening and the drop in the incidence of the coronavirus in July, allowed Spanish tourism to partially recover during eight weeks of summer. 70% fewer tourists arrived in July and August than in the same months of 2019, reasonable figures given the disappearance of the arrival of foreigners that occurred between April and June. But the gradual increase in infections in the country led the United Kingdom and Germany, among others, to advise their inhabitants in mid-August not to travel to Spain.
The consequences came in September, when the year-on-year number of foreign tourists fell again, to 87%. “These recommendations have many consequences. Most of the vacation packages do not apply their insurance if the destination is not advised by the authorities ”, says Javier Gándara.
According to the leader of the airline employers’ association, despite the recommendations of these governments, it was Germany and the United Kingdom that maintained air traffic during the summer months. But the tourists par excellence have been the French, of which four out of 10 have continued to come to Spain despite the health situation. In total, between July and September almost two million Gallic visitors arrived (-67% compared to last summer), 850,000 Germans (-82%), 800,000 British (-90%) and 310,000 Italians (-85%). On the other hand, transatlantic tourism has practically disappeared and only 37,000 Americans arrived (-96%).
The Balearic Islands is by far the Community most affected by the collapse of tourism this year. Between January and September it lost almost 90% of its tourists, in an archipelago in which 77% of the summer jobs in 2019 were related to tourism. The Mallorca Hotel Business Federation, which groups 850 hotels out of a thousand on the island, assures that as of today only 69 are open. “We cannot speak of a summer season as such, we simply had a few weeks of activity since mid-June ”, they say from the association. Following the recommendations of Germany and the United Kingdom, they had a “cascade of cancellations” that, in addition, caused a drop in price in the rooms.
The collapse of tourism in the Balearic Islands is followed by Catalonia, which lost 77% of foreign visitors, Andalusia (-75%), Comunidad de Madrid (-72%) and Comunidad Valenciana (-71%).
Travelers are more economical
Beyond the drop in tourists, the economic loss is also influenced by lower spending. The average outlay per person and trip fell between June and September by 23%, to 875 euros, as did the average daily expenditure of tourists, which fell by 26%, to 115 euros, due to lower prices to attract customers, but also that the tourists who have fallen the most this summer are those who had to hire accommodation.
The number of foreigners who stayed in places of payment in September, such as hotels, hostels or rental homes, fell by 90%; while visitors who slept in houses of their property or of friends and family decreased by 66%.