LONDON, UK – Newly-released data from SiteMinder reveals that hotel bookings throughout Spain rose more than 1000 percent over the two months leading into the summer, after dropping to 5.03 percent of 2019 levels on 27 April – their lowest level since COVID-19 paralysed the country’s travel sector in March.
According to the SiteMinder World Hotel Index, hotel reservations in Spain have returned to more than 55 percent of 2019 volumes and, until the introduction of quarantine measures in the UK this past week, had remained above the global average since mid-June. Outpacing Italy (42 percent YoY) and Morocco (29 percent YoY), Spain’s strong performance has been led by domestic travellers, who have made more than two-thirds of all hotel reservations over the last three months and will comprise more than 65 percent of all hotel guest arrivals in August.
“Despite the impact of the current pandemic, the Spanish public continues to rally behind their country’s critical tourism industry and has been pivotal in creating the steady hotel booking numbers that we see today. As we discovered in our recent Changing Traveller Report, more than nine-in-ten locals plan to travel domestically before the end of 2021 and, in light of how their worlds have changed this year, the current summer may have been their most-awaited yet,” says Sara Padrosa, Country Manager for Spain at SiteMinder.
The bounce back of hotel bookings in cities such as Valencia (57 percent YoY) and Malaga (57 percent YoY), in particular, displays a desire among tourists to enjoy a coastal holiday. However, the ongoing presence of the coronavirus currently impedes a complete recovery for the country’s hotel sector. Tightened travel restrictions have resulted in booking volumes within Barcelona contracting from 42 percent of 2019 levels to 26 percent, while hotel reservations in Madrid have hovered around 30 percent YoY since early July, as the capital braces for new measures to avoid a second wave of coronavirus.
The SiteMinder World Hotel Index is the leading indicator of hotel reservation and guest arrival trends around the world. Refreshed daily, its data is sourced from the bookings of SiteMinder’s 35,000 customers, through more than 400 hotel booking channels.
Tags: SiteMinder
