Spanish travel agencies provide a record summer with a “fall” of national reserves to the US
The employer of Spanish travel agencies ACAVE It foresees a record summer With a “Fall” of national reserves to the United Stateswhile American tourists will continue to come stable.
“A better summer than the previous one once again”has held the president of Acave, Jordi Martí, at a press conference to present the results of a survey on travel forecasts for the summer campaign, carried out two weeks ago between the agencies associated with the employer.
71% of the agencies consider that the reserves will grow between 5 and 15% compared to the same period last year, and 18% of companies expect to close the summer with the same data from 2024.
The Favorite destinations of the Spaniardsboth national and international, are Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, as well as the coast of Andalusia and Catalonia, and Asian countries such as China, Japan or Vietnam.
As for the issuing markets, the most important are France, the United Kingdom and Germanybeing the United States among the five countries that will send the most tourists to Spain during this summer.
On the specific case of the United States, 75% of the companies surveyed ensure that the demand of the Spaniards to travel to the country has been affected and 72% justify this decrease in the “unpopularity” of the Donald Trump government.
“Some for coherence, others for security and others for prudence choose other destinations,” said Martí, who has detailed that, Although business trips to New York have remainedthe reserves to the west coast and the national parks, more related to the summer era, have completely fallen.
In his opinion, this can enhance tourism in Spain: “It is true that this also at the receptive level can benefit us, since many international visitors who would have chosen the United States to do their vacation can end up living to our country.”
In relation to the war in Gaza, travel agencies have agreed to point out the paralysis of reserves to Israel and neighboring countries.
Travel price
Travel hiring It has increased between 10 and 15% Regarding last year, and even more since before the pandemia: “We are surprised that it has not affected the demand,” said Martí, who has valued that families increasingly prioritize vacations.
On average, a package of between 7 and 10 days costs about 2,000 euros per personand the destinations that remain an economic “opportunity” are Egypt, Thailand, the Faroe Islands (Denmark) and Japan, according to the recommendations of the companies.
Martí has explained that citizens Every time they reserve trips to get cheaper pricesa trend that has been reversed over time, since before the pandemic people waited until the last moment to get a good offer.
About the inflationHe explained that it also affects the agencies, since they “cheat” them in the billing and cut them the profit margin.
New regulations
The ACAVE survey has also asked the agencies for the first months of application of the Royal Decree 933, which asks for information to visitorsbefore what 34% of the issuing agencies have registered rejection by customers to provide the required data when considering it an invasion of your privacy.
Asked about what the decree has been operatively for your agency, 50% have affirmed that this data record would require more personnel for efforts, but that they cannot allocate resources to hire more.
