ARCHIVED - Costa Blanca hoteliers offer to work with UK to safeguard winter holiday season

Valencia region’s hotel employers’ association, Hosbec, is concerned “PCR shortage” could jeopardise autumn/winter vacations

Hoteliers in the Valencia region fear that a reported shortage of tests will be “a hindrance to travel” from Monday October 4, when fully vaccinated Britons will no longer have to take a PCR to return to the UK, only an antigent test on their second day back home.

But the effects of Brexit pose a new threat, according to Valencia region’s hotel employers association, Hosbec, which is concerned shortages are not only taking their toll on petrol stations and supermarkets, but that there is also “a potential risk that the UK will run out of reagents for antigen testing in the next few days”.

Eager to see the return of British tourists, Hosbec has contacted the British Ambassy in Spain and the Consul General to seek authorisation for tourists to buy tests in Spain, where “there are more than enough in the pharmacies and laboratories” ahead of their flight home. 

“This would be a highly recommendable option in view of the distribution problems that the UK has been suffering in the last few weeks, which could become an obstacle for many tourists wishing to travel to Spain,” said Hosbec, adding that the association is in constant contact with Turisme Comunitat Valenciana, airport authorities, VisitBenidorm and other tourism promotion entities “in case there is an urgent need to organise a specific campaign for British tourists traveling to Spanish destinations from October 4”.

Hopes are high the autumn/winter months will reactivate the toursim sector, and mitigate some of the huge losses due to the pandemic, with Hosbec confident that there will be a “boom” in bookings from next week. 

In fact, the UK market already accounts for close to 20% of international tourists in Spain, a figure that the association expects “to shoot up after the further lifting of restrictions”.

Hotels in Benidorm closed the week of September 20 to 26 with an average occupancy rate equal to that recorded the previous week, 66.2%, with “the gradual increase of the British market noticeable”, being the second most representative market with 19.1%, behind national tourists (69.1%), said Hosbec.

The Belgian market accounts for 3.4% of holidaymakers, followed by the Dutch and Portuguese with 2.3% and 1.4% respectively.

Over the weekend, average occupancy rose to 73.7%, with some hotels surpassing 90% and close to full occupancy.

For the last week of the month, (from September 27 to October 3) Hosbec forecasts an occupancy rate of 61.4%, but “this could be exceeded due to last-minute bookings”.

September will therefore end with an average occupancy of 68.4%, “a positive figure considering the context and the uncertainty generated during the last few months, but still far from the records of a year of normality as was 2019, when occupancy in Benidorm was 91.3%”, explained the hotel employers’ association. 

For the 97 hotels in the popular resort that are associated with Hosbec, the highlight of September has apparently been “the consolidation of the British market in Benidorm coming to represent more than 16% of the total number of foreign tourists during this month despite the restrictions”.

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