Spanish tourism is singing the blues, too
Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) reported the country’s occupancy rate until November has been down by 2.8 percent –with a considerably smaller number of travelers coming from abroad- while hotel fares remained on the rise by 4.9 percent, the Cinco Dias (Five Days) newspaper informed.
By and large, these stats lay bare the delicate situation the country’s premiere industry is going through, as long as they are not downplayed by the government itself. The Spanish administration has been keenly bent on conveying a message to the public that boils down to this: tourism is doing fine, the periodical complained.
According to official figures, the number of incoming visitors to the country is posting a 2.4 percent growth while the assertion of smaller revenues is somewhat questionable, the daily reported.
Hotels have forewarned –something they began doing since last summer- that they expect to close the year with a 6 percent plunge in occupancy rate and smaller earnings than what they reaped the year before. These figures –according to some stats revealed by the Bank of Spain- were plummeting by 6 percent in August.
The most worrisome –Cinco Dias blasted- is that the administration is draining energies away in a propaganda war instead of trying to come up with an action package good enough to iron out the problem in the light of the striking data now popping up to the surface.
At stake here is the future of an industry that generates roughly 70 billion euros a year –around 12.1 percent of Spain’s GNP- and employs 1.5 million people, some 10 percent of the country’s workforce.
The extraordinary expansion period of the last six years has put Spain as the world’s second destination among international tourists (second only to France) and the runner-up in revenue collection, trailing the United States.
However, the economic crisis coupled with the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are posing a serious threat to the snugness of this premiere location. Since early last year, figures have pointed to a meltdown of the sector, a situation heightened by the November data, the newspaper said.
Hotel check-ins have dipped by 5.2 percent –apartment occupancy rate is crawling back 9 percent- and bookings went down 2.3 percent in December.
This status quo –the daily warns- should call for a deep reflection. A series of domestic issues is exerting a tremendous pressure on the Spanish tourist sector and their negative influence –even grimmer overseas with such factors as indiscriminate price hikes- is specially acute in the dealership and distribution fields.
Nonetheless and despite how hard industry people try to deny it, one of the biggest problems is soaring hotel fares that have eventually turned Spain into a pricey destination for Europeans.
