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Tourism numbers in Spain have been incredibly positive so far this year. There were 12% more foreign visitors to the Region of Murcia in the first quarter of this year than there were in the same period of last year, most of the Brits, and they spent around 80 million euros more. The Bank of Spain has revealed that foreign tourism was responsible for 0.9% of GDP growth between January and April, and without it GDP would actually have fallen by 0.2%.

 

And yet, the number of passengers using the Region of Murcia International Airport last month fell by 1.8%. What happened? Is it that the Region has lost its shine and people only like visiting in winter now? If so, that’s taking deseasonalisation to a whole other level. More likely is the fact that many of the tourists visiting Murcia use Alicante Airport instead, given the much broader range of flight destinations available.

 

 

Still, the overall balance at Corvera Airport for the first five months of this year is fairly positive and shows an increase of 5.2% on the same period in 2023, with a total of 284,686 passengers using the airport between January and May 2024.

 

The number of flights registered between January and May also increased by 6.3%, reaching 2,372.

 

So far, so not-so-bad where the year’s total to date in concerned. But May was a disappointing month for airport managers, with its 100,848 passengers being nearly 2% lower than the number of people who used the airport in May 2023.

 

It’s also worth pointing out that this figure is 16.7% lower than in May 2019, before Covid struck and the year that the airport opened.

 

 

Just about all the summer flight routes are now open at Corvera airport and there are additional buses to and from the airport this summer season to help accommodate an expected flood of tourists.

 

Although May was a month with half-term holidays in the UK, it was not a big tourist month. Far from being a disaster, the relative slowdown this past month of May is likely just an anomaly on an otherwise upward (albeit slow-going) trajectory for the airport.

 

The summer holidays are just around the corner, and June, July and August should see passenger numbers increase slightly again, although given Corvera Airport’s recent form they will still probably be far below pre-pandemic levels and the passengers numbers that San Javier Airport received back in the day.