ARCHIVED - Spanish tourism has lost 5.5 billion euros due to lack of UK visitors so far this year
Just 51,000 visitors from the UK in May as opposed to 1.95 million in May 2019
The government expects visitor numbers to reach 45 per cent of the 2019 level
The international tourism sector in Spain is attempting to regain something resembling normal levels of activity as post-pandemic flights resume between the Costas and northern Europe, but the latest government data for May 2021 again illustrate graphically the scale of the loss to the national economy caused by the pandemic prior to the start of the peak summer season.
During May a total of 1.36 million visitors are reported to have arrived in Spain from abroad: an infinite increase on the figure of zero for last May, during the initial coronavirus lockdown, but almost insignificant in comparison with the same month in 2019, when over 7.9 million sunseekers flocked to Spain.
The number of tourists from the UK, traditionally the most important market, was just 51,155 in May as flights were still largely inoperative and travel restrictions remained in place, whereas two years ago the figure was reported as being 1.95 million! In this context the largest single source of foreign visitors this May was Germany, with 338,000, although this is still a long way short of the levels considered normal prior to the pandemic.
In economic terms, the sector remains close to a bare minimum level of activity. Two years ago it was calculated that international tourists spent over 8.1 billion euros while in Spain during May but this year the figure is just 1.39 billion – a decrease of almost 83 per cent.
During the first five months of 2021 it is estimated that spending by British visitors amounted to just 148 million euros as opposed to over 5.7 billion in 2019, equating to a 97.4 per cent loss in economic activity derived from UK tourists!
Prior to the publication of these figures, the Spanish government forecast that the number of foreign visitors to this country in the summer of 2021 is expected to reach 16.9 million, almost three times the figure last year and equivalent to approximately 45 per cent of the summer total in 2019. It is reported that as the EU’s Covid passport scheme comes into operation Spain is proving especially popular among German holidaymakers, and that the traditional influx of tourists from the UK will return to a certain degree, especially in the Balearics, which were recently placed on the UK’s “green list” of foreign destinations.
For the remaining British nationals, hopes are pinned on Spain moving from the amber to the green list, but given the surge in new cases during the last two weeks in both the UK and Spain, those who prefer to be realistic in their expectations have to admit that this is looking increasingly unlikely when the next revision takes place in two weeks' time.
All of which means that a return to normality appears to be some months away for most of those working in the tourist sector.