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Date Published: 26/05/2022
ARCHIVED - Brits in Javea, Germans in Denia, Belgians in Benissa: where do different nationalities holiday in Alicante?
The Marina Alta area of Alicante province experienced a bumper Easter with the return of international tourists
The tourism sector is experiencing a much-needed reboot and the recovery of the industry is without doubt well underway following the lifting of stringent anti-Covid measures ensuring the return of international holidaymakers.
On a national level, almost three-quarters of tourism accommodations are already booked up for the summer season, and Benidorm in the Marina Baixa is booming with the welcome return of Brits.
So, aside from Benidorm, where else do different nationalities holiday in Alicante province?
Well, it appears the Marina Alta is a firm favourite with most international tourists. Thanks to mobile phone technology, wherever holidaymakers go they leave a 'footprint', that is to say, their steps can be traced. Whilst this continues to raise privacy issues, it's a great tool to measure tourism trends.
This is exactly what the National Statistics Institute (INE) has been doing for some time now, using disaggregated and anonymised data provided by mobile phone companies.
And this week, the INE published experimental statistics based on this mobile phone data, with information on international tourists who travel to Spain, and the location of their devices. These statistics allow the results to be filtered by region, province and municipality.
In the case of the Marina Alta, the results are from foreign tourists who arrived in April for the Easter break, the first big test of the year. During that month, Denia received mostly German tourists; Javea and Teulada welcomed the most visitors from the United Kingdom; and Calpe and Benissa received the most Belgium holidaymakers.
Topping the table in terms of the most foreign tourists in the Marina Alta last month is Calpe with 14,822 visitors, followed by Javea with 12,082, Denia (10,206), Teulada (6,784), and Benissa (5,617).
In the case of Denia, the study shows that in April, 2,203 Germans visited the coastal town, followed by 1,966 people from the UK, 1,620 from France and 1,114 from the Netherlands. Below 1,000 are Switzerland (757), Belgium (595), Sweden (332), Italy (167), Poland (166) and Norway (134).
When it comes to Javea, tourists from the UK exceeded other nationalities by far with 4,041. They were followed by the Netherlands (1,953), France (1,322), Belgium (1,303), Germany (1,112), Switzerland (555), the United States (206), Poland (202), Sweden (166) and Italy (150).
Calpe received the most foreign tourism in the region in April, mainly Belgian and British. A total of 3,635 tourists from Belgium visited the town, followed by 3,287 from the UK. In third place comes Germany, with 1,686, followed by France (1,510), the Netherlands (1,434). Far behind are Switzerland (521), Poland (413), Norway (338), Sweden (276) and Italy (199).
In Teulada, as is the case in Javea, the overwhelming majority of visitors are British (2,641), followed by the Netherlands (1,107), Belgium (885) and Germany (868). Below 500 are France (425), Switzerland (188), Sweden (158), Norway (80), Poland (60) and Ireland (57).
And finally, in Benissa, similar to Calpe, Belgian tourism stood out in April with 1,444 holidaymakers from Belgium. There were 1,108 from the Netherlands, 1,016 from the UK. 675 from Germany, 516 from France 516. Less prominent is Switzerland (212), Norway (79), Poland (77), Sweden (71) and Italy (39).
The aggregate data used by the INE was provided by the three large mobile telephone operators in Spain, by locating foreign operators' SIM cards in the country.
However, the measurement of tourists using these statistics isn't foolproof. It could be the case that the same person travels with two or more devices and would be counted two or more times. Or, that he/she travels without any mobile terminal or keeps it disconnected to a national operator's network, in which case, they would not be detected at all, and, therefore, would not be counted in the data.
However, it does give a good idea of where and when different nationalities prefer to travel.
Image: Turismo Marina Alta
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