The closing of 2021 for the hotels of the Provincial Association of Hotels of Alicante offers discreet results. The hotel occupancy rate for the year as a whole remains at a 52,5%, a figure that far exceeds the 44.1% that marked 2020, but which, nevertheless, is far 23.8 percentage points from the year before the start of the pandemic, 2019. The balance of this year is therefore bittersweet. On the one hand, there is a notable rise in the rate compared to the worst moments of the covid crisis, but the figures confirm that the expectations of a full recovery, for now, are still far away.
2021 was marked by the constants sanitary restrictions. On the one hand, obstacles to national and international travel have been a constant until the generalization of the digital green certificate coinciding with the summer. On the other hand, time limitations and those referring to the maximum groups for meetings or hotel and restaurant services have turned Alicante tourism on its head. The Valencian Community has been characterized, with the exception of the last section of the year, for being one of the most restrictive and that has reduced competitiveness in times of extreme demand volatility.
Hoteliers warn that the pandemic is far from being over and tourism is a sector that is notably vulnerable to situations in which freedom of movement is restricted or there are time limits or with respect to the number of people who can sit at a table. The recovery is still weak and any setback in the health evolution automatically translates into brakes on reservations and cancellations.
Regarding the outlook for 2022, we trust that the recovery of hotel occupancy It will continue to advance, but the health uncertainty is still very much alive and what happened in the last stages of the year with the irruption of the omicron variant invites us to be cautious both with regard to the occupancy forecasts and in terms of the general stability of the activity. “At this juncture it is necessary to maintain a vigilant attitude in the face of the challenges that the pandemic may offer and we must continue to support the business fabric to maintain its capacity to generate wealth and well-being when the crisis finally subsides. Programs such as the Travel voucher or the subsidies from the different administrations to alleviate the effects of this difficult situation have proven successful and should be maintained. On the contrary, we are particularly concerned about the initiative of the Valencian government to tax tourism with a new, unfair and untimely rate that threatens the competitiveness of our businesses and, what is worse, transfers an image of rejection to the traveler that weighs down our reputation and is radically opposed to the hospitality we have achieved consolidate as a hallmark of Valencian tourism“, states the association in a statement.
For its part, the last month of the year ended with a 48.7% hotel occupancy rate for the province of Alicante, a figure that exceeds 29.2% in December 2020, but which is 8.2 percentage points below the 56.9% that it marked in 2019.
The city of Alicante has achieved an occupancy of 48.3%. The best figures have been given in Guardamar del Segura (74,0%), San Juan Beach (59,1%) Orihuela (49.8%) or Xábia (48.7%). Below the provincial average it has been San Juan de Alicantet (47.0%), inland hotels (34.1%), El Campello (29.3%) or Santa Pola (28.7%). By areas, Coasts and Beaches has reached 52.4%, while Interior has stood at 39.7%.
The origin of the demand has been very balanced. A 50.2% have come from Spain and 49.8% from outside the borders. Among domestic tourists, the most numerous came from the Valencian Community itself (32.6%), followed by those from Madrid (24.6%), Catalonia (10.3%), Andalusia (7.7%) , Castilla La Mancha (5.4%) and Murcia (4.7%). Of those arriving from international markets, those arriving from the United Kingdom (14.7%), France (10.2%), the Netherlands (10.0%), Germany (6.1%), Belgium (5.5 %), Sweden (5.1%), Italy (4.7%) or Algeria (4.5%).
As for the 2021 bridge, that of New Years Eve. The forecasts, which stood at 48.7%, have been widely exceeded thanks to last-minute bookings, which have allowed an average occupancy of 57.9% to be reached, a very positive figure in a context that had seen complicated as a consequence of the accelerated expansion of the omicron variant.
The good weather forecasts, finally confirmed, have been a spur to the occupation. On the other hand, unlike on other occasions, the Valencian Community had less restrictive sanitary measures than other regions, which has made it possible to collect those undecided customers who decided to vacation at the last minute.
The city of Alicante has reached 54.8%. The areas with the best occupancy data on the New Years bridge have been Playa de San Juan (93.7%), Pilar de la Horadada (90.2%), Jávea (82.9%) or Guardamar del Segura (76.6%). With data that are more modest than the average, there are El Campello (55.0%), Orihuela (54.4%), Santa Pola (37.7%) or inland hotels (23.7%). The clientele of this bridge has been mainly international (53.0%), while national travelers have been 47.0%.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.