The calendar for this tourist season, with an exceptionally late Easter, is boosting the campaign, especially in coastal destinations, as ACAVE’s president, Jordi Martí, pointed out in a statement on Monday. According to the survey, 61% of travel agencies are registering an increase in bookings of at least 10% and, of these, almost 50% estimate that the increase will reach 15%. Furthermore, 29% expect to equal the results of last year’s Easter campaign and only 10% responded that they could be below 2024.
“Easter is the first holiday period of the year, and as it comes so late this year, many travellers will take the opportunity to take the whole week’s holiday, something that doesn’t happen so much when this holiday comes in March,” said Martí. Among international destinations, Spaniards are opting for Asian countries, with Thailand, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines among the favourites.
This is followed by European countries, with Italy, France or Germany in the lead. The United Kingdom also remains in the top positions, despite the recent entry into force of ETA UK visas. Among domestic destinations, Spanish travellers will opt for the Canary Islands this Easter, followed by the Balearics, the Costa Brava and the coast of Andalusia. Madrid and Barcelona appear next on the list.
The survey also focused on the activity of incoming agencies, which have 72% of bookings from foreign travellers compared to 28% from domestic travellers. The most important source markets for this period are, in this order, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Italy and Benelux.
The Canary and Balearic Islands, together with the Mediterranean coast (Catalonia, Andalusia and the Community of Valencia), are also the most popular destinations for foreign visitors. There is also high demand for city break destinations such as Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia and Malaga.
In the survey, travel agencies expressed their concern about the current geopolitical situation and the impact it has on tourism.
For the moment, the agencies specialising in receiving travellers claim not to have yet noticed any effect on the demand for Spanish destinations from any international source market, not even the United States. The survey, which explicitly asked about the US, has not detected any change in demand, so the sector considers that it will continue to be one of the main outbound markets, in line with recent years.
On the other hand, 46% of the outbound agencies have noticed a contraction in the demand for trips to the United States by their clients, who are choosing to travel to other destinations. ACAVE has pointed out that the intensity of this fall in the demand for the US cannot yet be properly judged, although it is ‘significant enough’ at this stage of the season. ACAVe is the most representative association in Spain and has 400 members and around 1,000 points of sale throughout the country.
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