SPAIN: MORE TOURISTS, LESS MONEY

Chris Grad - Sep 20, 2010
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Spain attracts more tourists again. Spanish tourism has experienced a big revival this summer. However, as many tourists have arrived because of special discounts, tourism industry faces another problem: more work, less money.

 

The number of guests arriving to Spain in July 2010 has increased by 4.5% to 7 million. Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands were even more successful than the rest of Spain. 1.7 million guests have visited Balearic Islands this year which makes a rise of 9.2% in comparison with the year 2009.

People are arriving in great numbers. However, the problem is why they are coming. In order to lure tourists back after the crisis of 2009, many travel agencies and hotels offered special discounts. That in fact means that there are more guests, more work to be done but less money coming from the guests.

The prices of accommodation are approximately 1% below average. Tourism is also suffering from difficult start of the season. The total number of tourists was 0.4% below the level of the numbers from last year.

A year ago, the tourism in Spain experienced the worst slump in history. The number of tourists fell by 8.7 % in comparison to 52 million in 2003. This was a shock to Spanish authorities that were used to have increasing number of visitors every year. Nevertheless, the summer of 2010 could improve the situation of Spain very much. Final figures will tell the authorities more.

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