reservations uk to Costa Blanca grew 2% for the summer of 2019

airport of The Altet expected to climb this winter with a 10% increase in the number of vacancies

The entrepreneurs envisaged a ‘change of cycle’ in tourism

The Community of Valencia comes this Monday to the tourism fair in London (World Travel Marketing, WTM for its acronym in English) in a critical point. The forecasts of entrepreneurs in the start of the year have been confirmed as the season progressed, and you can already start to talk about end-of-positive trends international that so many visitors have been diverted to Spain in the last few summers. The current situation can be measured in the fair, which lasts until Wednesday and hosted by top professionals in the industry. The main element that has changed the rules of the game has been the emergence of countries that for years have been closed to all traffic the british safety issues (primarily Turkey and Egypt) and that are now contained in a predominant place of the catalogs of british operators.

What is the problem? Prices. The greater part of the product with the working of these markets, it is all-inclusive, and also in establishments in “high quality”, as recognised in the employer’s hotel in Benidorm (Hosbec). Its president, Antoni Mayor, it takes a year alerting that it is difficult to compete with a range of prices that can deliver packages in a five-star for 380 pounds (about 432 euros) a week. Even more so when the hoteliers have taken advantage of the recent boom years to gain profitability by taking advantage that the Valencian Community is the tourist region cheaper in Spain. Currently, the employer estimated that only 20% of hotel beds in Benidorm (about 10,000) are working with the format of all inclusive.

In this sense, the devaluation of the Turkish lira against the pound last summer has added more pressure to Spain in just a few weeks increased by 40% the value of the british currency, which has strengthened the position of travel agencies to give priority to the ottoman country. The result is that, according to the latest survey prepared by the consulting firm GFK (September 2018) and which measures the forecasts for the summer of 2019, bookings to Turkey have soared 79%, to 260.698, while those from Egypt, Bulgaria and Croatia have grown 94%, 32% and 24%, respectively.

in Front of this the main focus of the arrival of british tourists to the Community, the Costa Blanca, it keeps the type with respect to the numbers of the last campaign, with a growth of two points (59.145 packages). Benidorm, the destination of 90% of visitors from the United Kingdom, up 3%. In Spain, stocks rise an average 7% thanks to the pull of destinations such as the Costa Dorada or Costa Brava (+15% and +14%), although the Balearic Islands are kept in the 3%.

Also keep in mind that the pessimistic forecasts of the rest of the surrounding countries, such as France (+26%) and Italy (+5%), have been traced with respect to what it looked a few months ago, where almost all fell. The finding is important because, as he points out, “tourism is a matter of communicating vessels”, and a backward generalized of the reserves could spark a price war to compete for the british market. What is certain is that for now, Europe resists the onslaught, but its growth slows down and in some points it is close to zero.

These data imply also a balm for the air traffic of the airport of The Altet, the primary point of entry of the English to the region. Uk leads in the first nine months of the year, a fall of seven points of passengers, something that has been partially offset by the 10% growth in the arrivals of the spaniards, but it also shows that the lines that have become vacant due to the bankruptcy of the airline Monarch have still not been filled. In this sense, Aena envisages that for this campaign of winter the number of seats offered to the United Kingdom by origin or destination Alicante to grow by 10%, to reach 1.8 million. The main destination will be London-Gatwick, with more than 268,000 cars (20% more).

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