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Date Published: 06/05/2021

ARCHIVED - Half of all hotels in the province of Alicante are not re-opening until July

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

50% of the sector is choosing to wait until international tourists can visit the Costa Blanca

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Half of all hotels in the province of Alicante are not re-opening until July

The end of the state of alarm in Spain on May 9 and the lifting of the perimetral closure in the region of Valencia means that hotels in the Costa Blanca can start to receive national tourists once again.

However, around half of all hotels in the region will choose to remain closed until international tourists arrive in July, due to the high cost of preparing for the season, the re-opening and staffing of their premises, according to regional hotel association, Hosbec.

Some members of the sector, which has been badly hit by the economic crisis caused by Covid, have decided to push their opening back due to the lack of international tourists, especially British tourists, who currently aren’t allowed to vacation in the EU. Although it is possible that the British government will allow international travel to resume from May 17, the Spanish government is currently maintaining the position that its own borders will remain closed to third country nationals until the end of May.

This may, of course, change, depending on the "traffic light" classification of Spain, which is expected to be announced within the next few days.

However, it does make the viability of the sector more complicated when there is so much uncertainty surrounding the British market, traditionally the backbone of the regional tourist sector.

Some Hosbec members won’t open yet as they have opted to undertake improvements to their premises during the pandemic but the remainder of the sector is currently preparing to open from May 14 or from the beginning of June when national domestic tourism resumes.

The president of the hotelier association Hosbec has stated that the sector is still facing uncertainty surrounding the anti-covid restrictions and is awaiting more news from the regional president, Ximo Puig, who will announce the new measures next Monday (May 10).

Hosbec has also revealed that most of the early reservations that have been made are for weekends, not surprising, given that the traditional holiday period for Spanish workers doesn´t begin until July.

The Provincial Association of Touristic Hotels and Accommodation in Alicante (APHA) has announced that only around 40% of all possible reservations have been made for the month of May, with one of the reasons being the company Jet Holidays’ decision to delay their operations on the Costa Blanca until June.

Another factor affecting the hotel industry is the new cancellation policies, as most companies now give out full refunds for cancellations made 24 hours before the reservation.

There is no doubt that the sector has endured a difficult year and 2021 is continuing to sew uncertainty.

The latest tourism figures published on Thursday May 6 relating to March showed that just 47,000 visitors went to the whole of the Valencia region during March, down from 648,000 in March 2019, and spending only 49.2 million euros, as opposed to 635 million in March 2019, a fall of almost 93 per cent.