Although the Spanish travel market for the upcoming summer season is down by 25 percent from 2019, bookings to Egypt are however much higher than pre-pandemic levels, according the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agents (CEAV) in cooperation with figures provided by ForwardKeys: a tourism intelligence company that provides data travel in this market.
The figures stated that with more countries lifting restrictions, this has on turn encouraged the Spaniards to travel abroad.
Accordingly the destinations with the most growth in demand for travel during the coming months of July and August compared to 2019 are Egypt ranking first with about (+81%), UAE (+39%), Sweden (+36%), Tanzania (+28%), Greece (+23%), Dominican Republic (+21%), Qatar (+21%), France (+20% ), the Maldives (+10%), Argentina and Norway (both +6%).
Carlos Garrido, President of CEAV, said that: considering that a high percentage of these types of travel arrangments is done through agencies.
These numbers make us optimistic and we believe that we can have a decent season this year after two years without almost any sales.
Juan A. Gómez, Head of Market Intelligence at ForwardKeys, notes that while it is true that the overall volume of outbound bookings is still relatively lower than in 2019, and beyond the excellent behavior with which the market continues to offer travel to Spain, the Spaniards travel to some international destinations will grow significantly more compared to the summer of 2019.
He notes that “travel agencies will be essential when conveying confidence to the Spanish traveler in this summer of recovery.”
According to the travel platform Atrápalo, the data accumulated since the declaration of the state of emergency in the spring of 2020 until now was analyzed, and the conclusions were that: “the current improved situation in the travel sector has caused an increase in demand for vacation trips and 2019 figures.”
Summer 2022 is presented as the “year of recovery,” and data analysis indicates that 80 percent of searches made by users are on coastal and island destinations, of which 75 percent correspond to destinations along the Spanish coast, and 25 percent to islands, primarily the Canary Islands, which accumulate 15 percent of searches.
As for international destinations, reclaiming long-distance holiday destinations such as North Africa (Egypt and Morocco), the Caribbean and the United States stand out, as well as European classics such as (Rome, Paris, Portugal, Greece, and Turkey).
Regarding the average length of stay, the average stay in national destinations is 10 days. The longest stay corresponds to the Canary Islands around 15 days, while the average length in international destinations is 12 days.
