Bookings for trips to Spain in the main European source markets are recovering pre-pandemic levels this year and are even exceeding them in some of them, according to data from the main international tour operators. This recovery is already reflected in the reservations to travel to Spain this Easter and in those that are being made for the next summer season in issuing markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France or Belgium. In the latter country, the tour operator TUI has registered a 5% increase in reservations to Spain at Easter compared to 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
Half of all plane reservations are to Spanish destinations, mainly the Canary Islands (Tenerife and Gran Canaria in the lead), but also to the Costa del Sol, which together with the Turkish Riviera and the spa city Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) top the five places most desired by Belgians. Data similar to that offered by the Brussels airport, which expects 900,000 travelers for these holidays, almost 70% of the passengers who registered before the spread of the coronavirus.
Madrid and Barcelona are among the main destinations, along with Lisbon, Rome, Frankfurt and Vienna. TUI acknowledges to Efe, that also in Germany, in general, the figures for reservations to Spain are “very promising”, highlighting the archipelagos and especially Mallorca, the favorite destination for Germans in summer and Easter.
The German tour operator, which incorporated additional flights with TUI Fly from several German cities to Palma, calculates that 40,000 tourists from Germany will visit Mallorca at Easter. To respond to the high demand for trips to that destination, Lufthansa operates to Mallorca from Germany during this Easter with planes for intercontinental flights, whose capacity is close to 320 passengers.
In the case of the United Kingdom, according to the Abta travel association, Spain appears as the most popular destination for British people who want to travel abroad, followed by the US, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Australia, Canada and Turkey. . The Costa del Sol appears as the most popular Spanish destination. British tourism to Spain is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels this year, while some airlines plan to increase their flights to our country. Only from London airports, 1,710 weekly flights are operated to different Spanish destinations, to which are added those that take off from other British terminals such as Manchester or Birmingham.
French tour operators note that, during the first two months of the year, and up until the start of the war in Ukraine, their customers’ bookings have grown strongly. The French Union of Tour Operator Companies (SETO) specifies that its results are “excellent” in packages for Spain, thanks to the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands
