ARCHIVED - Summer bookings soar on the Spanish costas
Tourist reservations have surged across the provinces of Alicante, and other areas of Spain as travel restrictions are relaxed.
Summer bookings of tourist accommodation across the Costa Blanca has soared following the relaxation of national and international travel restrictions, with 85 per cent already reserved for August in Alicante.
As holidaymakers scramble to book breaks away, the number of bookings has risen over the last week, and across the three provinces in the Valencia region on the Costa Blanca, 77 per cent of all hotels, apartments and other tourist accommodation are provisionally booked.
This is up on the 77.3 per cent of rooms which were occupied in August 2020, according to data from Idealista's online vacation platform Rentalia.
While last August, national tourists from across Spain opted for less crowded destinations such as Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia, this summer is seeing a boom in 'classic' coastal summer destinations such as Benidorm.
The province of Alicante is currently the fifth most popular destination in Spain, with 85 per cent of rooms provisionally reserved, behind Mallorca, where 90 per cent of holiday accommodation is booked up, Menorca (87.9 per cent), Cadiz (86.2), and Cantabria (85.5).
According to the travel experts, "the good rates of vaccination are encouraging tourists, both domestic and international, to book their vacations with haste, and it would not be surprising to see some coastal destinations with occupancy levels similar to those prior to the pandemic".
More than three million vaccines have been administered in the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellon since the start of the vaccination campaign in December, and this week will see a further 400,000 doses added.
IMAGE: Turismo Costa Blanca