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ARCHIVED - Summer flights from UK to Spain triple those of biggest competitor, Italy
Scheduled flights from the UK to Spain this high season are still below pre-pandemic levels
Spain is racing towards its first full summer season since the onset of the pandemic, free from most travel and social restrictions, and the latest data provided by the Turespaña Trend Report indicates that it is once again the favoured destination for British travellers. In fact, airlines have scheduled three times as many seats from the UK to Spain than for its nearest competitor, Italy.
Even with this huge boost, scheduled seats to Spain are still 6.9% lower than in the pre-pandemic days, a trend which has been bucked by other European destinations such as Greece and Turkey, which have registered increases of 24.1% and 33.8% on 2019, respectively. For its part, Portugal will have 0.3% more airline seats from the UK this summer.
Examining the possible reasons for this, Turespaña points out that many tour operators such as TUI have been heavily promoting these destinations, and countries such as Turkey and Egypt have begun recouping the tourist influx they lost while their countries were in conflict.
Even so, Spain appears to be back on top of the list, and Google data shows that it accounts for 25% of all searches by British travellers, while its main competitors make up for less that 10%. March 18 marked a clear upturn in searches for Spanish holidays, after the government relaxed travel restrictions for the British, and Turespaña believes the vast choice of low-cost operators between Spain and the UK is another attractive factor.
While market recovery is clear for destinations such as Greece and Turkey, the report demonstrates that Spain is “without a doubt” the first choice for UK tourists.
But while Spain will gladly welcome the return of British travellers, it appears that this tourist group may not be as lucrative as before. Recent data shows that while spending by UK visitors grew by 52.8% in 2021 compared to the previous year, it actually fell by a considerable 73.2% compared to pre-pandemic levels, when it exceeded 16,000 million euros.
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