25/05/2003 00:00
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By Humphrey Carter BRITISH holidaymakers spend more in Spain than in any other part of the world each year. Over the past three years, Spain has risen to become the UK's top destination, knocking France from its long held number one position and compared to the first quarter of last year, holiday bookings have risen by six percent in the UK during the first four months of this year. According to the latest report from the UK National Statistics Office, in 2001, the British spent 117 million pounds on 10.7 million holidays to Spain. percent of UK visits to Spain were for a holiday, while only 59 per cent of visits to France were for for a vacation. But probabaly what is most significant, especially with regards to Spain's economy is that in 2001, British visitors to Spain spent £4.6 billion and that since then, the number of British holidaymakers coming to Spain has only risen, along with spending. On average, British visitors will spend 11 days on holiday in Spain and during that time, spend £391, slightly less than the average £434 worldwide and much lower than Britons visiting the United States. Although the National Statistics Office does not provide any specific figures for the Balearics or Majorca, only that spending during the first quarter was one percent higher than the final quarter of last year. At the end of January this year, nearly 480.000 package holidays had been booked this summer in Majorca. If, on average, they all spend £391, then British holidaymakers over the next three months will spend an estimated £190 million in Majorca alone while the 847.000 people who, by the end of January, had booked a summer holiday in the Balearics will be spending in excess of £332 million.



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THE hotel industry has finally been forced to admit that just because hotel bookings are down “it does not mean that less tourists are coming this summer.” In response to the latest set of summer hotel bookings, which show a ten percent drop on last year, Zontur, the association of Spanish resort hotels has admitted that the figures do not necessarily correspond to an overall fall in tourism. The association's secretary-general, Ramón Estalella, says “we've got to be optimistic,” about the summer. In the Balearics, for example, Palma airport figures show an increase in passengers while hotel bookings remain relatively low.
Ramón Estalella says that there will be a late pick up in hotel bookings while the sector is starting to acknowledge that independent holidays are becoming increasingly popular, so too are self catering villa and chalet holidays, while with so many holiday homes on the island, many people are also staying with friends and family. Ramón Estalella says that hoteliers are noticing that holiday habits are changing. “Over the past two years, hoteliers have been forced into offering last minute special discounts in order to fill their rooms and, as a result, a significant size of the holiday market has become accustomed to booking at the last minute in order to get the best deal,” Ramón Estalella says. For example, in 1995, German holidaymakers booked, on average, three months before travelling, now they leave it until just three weeks prior to departure and similar changes have taken place in the UK as well. Furthermore, Ramón Estalella says that package holidays are becoming less popular “something which is worrying tour operators, but it does not mean a fall in tourism, just that tourists are preferring to make their own travel arrangements and book hotel accommodation either directly, on arrival or on the internet when they book their flights.”