Brits outstrip Spaniards on Benidorm holidays for first time since pandemic

BRITISH tourists in Benidorm have outnumbered Spanish visitors for the first time since before the pandemic – and it's still only early spring.

Hotel and hospitality trade association for the Costa Blanca, HOSBEC, says the number of UK nationals travelling to the Alicante-province holiday capital from their home country is the highest since before March 2020 when Covid-19 contagion forced the whole of Spain into lockdown.

The figures HOSBEC reveals come from the same month two years on – March 2022 – when the weather is still not generally conducive to long days sunning oneself on the beach.

This bodes well for Easter and, even more so, for summer, the association believes.

“In reality, all destinations across Spain have seen tourist numbers at their maximum since March 2020,” HOSBEC admits.

Practically all hotels in the Valencia province and those along the Alicante-province coastline, known as the Costa Blanca, are now operating, and about nine in 10 of those in the Benidorm area itself and in the province of Castellón.

“At the moment, the war in Ukraine is not having a negative effect on hotel bookings,” HOSBEC assures.

“In terms of international holidaymakers, Spain is seen as a safe European destination where there are no restrictions or problems in tourists entering.

“The conflict is, however, causing tourists to postpone holidays outside the country, and many are seeking new destinations closer to home for their forthcoming breaks.

“Notwithstanding any last-minute changes, we are confident of a buoyant Easter for tourism, which could be a near-perfect one if it comes accompanied by dry, sunny weather and temperatures normally associated with mid-April and spring.”

The past few weeks along Spain's east coast have been very wet, with constant downpours, but temperatures have started to rise significantly and April has so far been largely dry.

It is hoped that the usual Easter parades – the main ones of which are on Good Friday in the evening and early on Sunday morning – will finally be able to go ahead for the first time since 2018.

Although some parts of Spain were able to proceed with their processions in 2019, much of the Mediterranean coast was forced to cancel these at the last minute due to persistent rain – and those of 2020 and 2021 were called off nationwide due to the pandemic.

Finer details: One in four Benidorm holidaymakers came from the UK

During the week from March 28 to April 3, an average of 68.9% of hotel and holiday accommodation rooms in Benidorm and on the Costa Blanca in general were taken up, being a rise of 2.4 percentage points on the previous week.

Generally, accommodation take-up has been rising slightly week by week, as would normally be the case at this time of year, with the month of March closing on an average of 67.5% available rooms occupied.

The last week in March was when foreign holidaymakers in Benidorm and surrounding coastal areas outstripped 'staycation' tourists – accounting for 55.6%, and in the majority from the UK, which continues to be a market leader in the area.

Of these 55.6%, Brits accounted for 44.6%, a long way ahead of the second- and third-most prolific output countries, Belgium (2.7%) and The Netherlands (2.5%).

This translates as British visitors making up 24.8% of the total, or nearly one in four visitors to Benidorm in march.

Most of the remaining 45% were Spanish State pensioners on IMSERSO trips, the subsidised staycation tours organised in autumn, winter and spring for the over-65s.

For the remainder of the Costa Blanca, Spanish tourists accounted for 51.3% in March and foreigners for 48.7% - a figure which is expected to level up as the weather gets warmer and which could see the latter overtake the former for the first time since summer 2019.

British holidaymakers on the Costa Blanca as a whole made up 11.6%, followed by Norwegians (6.5%) and Belgians (6.1%).

Valencia and Castellón: Popular with European visitors, but less 'British'

Over the week from March 28 to April 6, hotels in the province of Valencia were 73% full, a rise of 14.5 percentage points on the previous week and closing March with an average of 64.1% full.

In this province, staycations accounted for 54.7% of visitors and, of the remainder, Brits made up 5.7%, but were beaten by the Dutch, at 7.1%.

French tourists in the province of Valencia totalled 3.9% of international visitors, followed by Belgians (3.8%), Italians (3.6%), Germans (2.8%) and Portuguese (2.1%).

The province of Castellón, which includes the much quieter but well-loved coastal holiday hotspots of Peñíscola, Benicàssim and Oropesa del Mar, reported an average of 52% of hotel rooms occupied throughout March, which reached 58.9% in the final week.

For Castellón, staycations accounted for nearly 85% of visitors up to and including April 3, and of the remaining 15% who came from abroad, French tourists totalled 3.3%, Italians 1.9% and Belgians 1.3%, with none of the other international groups reaching 1% of the non-Spanish contingent.

In all cases, weekends saw hotel occupation rise, with a typical 10 to 15 percentage-point difference between weekdays and Friday nights through to Sundays.