Although July has already begun, there are still rooms available in many hotels in Barcelona and along the rest of the Catalan coast of Spain. Most hotels have vacancies for this current month and also for August. It is an issue that is affecting many hoteliers in Spain. However, they are well aware that in Spain a lot of tourists wait to the last minute to make their hotel reservations, so the hotel sector remains confident that a rush of last-minute bookings will complete a summer season which will demonstrate some tentative signs of recovery.
Travel agents in Spain are confident that the season will be at least as good as 2009 or even better. Last year 4.63 million foreign tourists visited Catalunya between the months of June and August. According to Francisco Carnerero, president of the Association of Travel Agencies in Catalunya (ACAV) “the occupation rate in the hotels will be higher during these summer months but we are not expecting a huge increase, probably 2% or 4%”.
Barcelona airport has scheduled 4,140 flights for the first five days of July, just four less than the same period last year. Despite the recent VAT increase on hotels in Spain, accommodation rates will not rise. The hotel associations stated that whilst they cannot lower their prices any more they will not pass on the rise in VAT to guests. And, it is still possible to find excellent last minute deals with discounts of up to 60 % in many hotels.
The fact that some establishments have increased the maximum age at which children stay for free or include free drinks in their package deals also means that, even if hotel occupancy rates go up, turnover is now often lower than in previous years. Tourists also appear to be spending less in shops and restaurants than before which is affecting not only the hotels but many other tourism businesses in Spain.