Britons drop Spanish holidays as weak pound hurts bookings
Monday, December 29, 2008 @ 4:19 PM
Thousands of Britons are dropping traditional holidays to Spain because of the weakness of the pound and fears over the after-effects of the banking crisis.
The severe fall-off in bookings is alarming tourist authorities and businesses.
Figures from the Spanish tourist industry reveal that the number of Britons who visited Spain in November, for example, was down by 15% on 2007.
The fall has closely tracked the decreasing value of the pound. Britons began to turn their backs on Spain in September, when numbers were down 5%, reaching 7% in October. Last month's dramatic decline came after the pound had lost 25% of its value against the euro in a year.
With the pound and the euro now apparently heading for parity, tourist authorities fear that worse will come – with the all-important summer season now looking grim.
"We are seeing principal markets fall away," explained Marien André, of the Catalan government's Tourism Observatory. "Everything has become very volatile."
That is causing alarm in a country which relies on a steady flow of Britons to keep its tourism sector buoyant.
Some 17 million British tourists land at Spanish airports or drive across the border every year, according to the Foreign Office, accounting for almost one in three tourists who visit Spain, which earns 11% of GDP from tourism.
The Canary Islands, where the mild winters attract many of end-of-year British tourists, have seen the number arriving this winter fall by 15%, while the Costa del Sol area around Malaga suffered even worse, with visitors down by 17%.
Spanish hotels have dropped their prices by 2% this year, but this has not been enough to hang on to British tourists - many of whom now prefer to rent houses and apartments online or off friends and relatives.
While British people are abandoning their Spanish holidays, however, Spaniards are beginning to fill the budget airline seats that they are leaving empty.
The weakness of the pound has made England suddenly seem cheap to Spaniards who previously found Britain's most popular tourist spots too expensive.
With the euro also stretching much further in British shops, Spaniards who last year travelled to New York to hunt for bargains in the post-Christmas sales have been booking into London hotels.
Spanish internet hotel booking sites report increases of up to 70% in London bookings for immediately after Christmas. Bookings for flights plus hotels were up 80%, according to one portal.
One route, from the northern city of La Coruña, to London is carrying double the number of passengers this year compared with 2007.
"The attraction of London is very strong,'' said one travel agent. "It is not that far away and its currency is weak."
Newspaper travel supplements in recent weeks have been full of the bargain prices in London, with iPods now 25% cheaper there than in Spain. Even a pint of beer is now deemed reasonable at €3.60 (£3.40), against nearly €5 a year ago.
Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper filled three pages on Monday to explain to its readers the advantages of travelling to London in the coming months.
"No one doubts that this year London will be the favoured destination for those who, despite the economic crisis, still want to keep travelling," the paper said.
Not all Spaniards, however, were mourning the disappearance of the British tourist. "They only ever spend their money on alcohol and then they have to be carted off to hospital after they get drunk and pass out,'' said a comment posted on La Vanguardia's website. "Perhaps we can start bringing in quality tourism now."
Source: Guardian