ARCHIVED - Tourist arrivals in Torrevieja reach pre-pandemic levels

Hotel occupancy in the Vega Baja municipality, Alicante province, hit 78 per cent in July and August

Despite a bleak start to the year, Torrevieja has marked a successful summer with a hotel occupancy rate of 78 per cent overall - slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019 (77.9 per cent).

A breakdown reveals that during July, 74 per cent of hotel beds were booked, rising to 80.3 per cent in August, a trend which saw rervations increase monthly from April onwards.

And Torrevieja Tourist Office attended to enquiries from 6,006 visitors, almost 50 per cent of whom were international tourists, with the majority being French (29.3 per cent), and Belgian (19 per cent), followed by British, Swedish and German.

The majority of national tourists were from Madrid (26.6 per cent), followed by local visitors from across the Valencia region (23.1 per cent), and the Basque Country (10.2 per cent).

In terms of hotel reservations, by categories, the town's only four-star establishment was almost fully booked in August, with an occupancy rate of 96.22 per cent, exceeding that of July. The three-star establishments reached an average of 83.48 per cent occupancy in the first two weeks of August and 78.47 per cent for the rest of the month, with some of them topping 90 per cent. 

As for the apartments, the data provided by the tourist information office shows 91.77 were booked during August.

According to Torrevieja's councillor for tourism, Rosario Martinez Chazarra, the busiest day of the summer at the town's tourist office in the Paseo Vista Alegre was Tuesday, August 10, with 278 visitors, followed by Wednesday, August 4, with 268 people. 

Of the total number of queries made, 38 per cent were about local information, 14.3 per cent about cultural activities, 10.2 per cent about transport.

And for the first time since the start of the pandemic, enquiries from international tourists in July and August outnumbered those from national visitors, 52.28 per cent and 45.78 per cent of the 6,006 requests for assistance respectively.

According to data from the Spanish government, the tourism sector is returning to pre-pandemic levels across the country, at least in terms of domestic tourism.

IMAGE: Ayuntamiento de Torrevieja