Benidorm tourism has best winter since 2005

DESPITE historically being a bad month for tourism, in February, hotel occupancy in Benidorm closed at an average of 72.2 per cent capacity, according to data from Hosbec. This represents an 8.5 per cent increase in tourist arrivals compared with last year and is said to be the city’s best winter season since 2005.

The majority (54 per cent) of overnight stays in Benidorm comes from Spanish tourists.

Of the international tourists, Brits represented the majority with 32.9 per cent of arrivals, followed by Belgians with 6.9 per cent, the Dutch with 3.4 per cent, and the remaining 2.8 per cent a smattering from across the nationalities.

Two star hotels were the most sought after by tourists last month and their occupancy reached 79.8 per cent. Three star hotels came next with 77 per cent occupancy, while four star hotels were below the average with just 69.3 per cent.

Between December and February the Costa Blanca as a whole enjoyed the best hotel occupation rate in mainland Spain, with 50 per cent, beating other popular resorts like the Costa del Sol (35 per cent) or the Costa Brava (22 per cent), National Statistics Institute figures show.

Since December 150,000 tourists on average visited the Costa Blanca each month, 77,000 of stayed in Benidorm.

Meanwhile, the Costa del Sol’s average during this period was 142,000; the Costa Brava 58,000; and Mallorca 64,000 tourists.

In January, the number of employees in the hotel sector fell by 6.2 per cent in Benidorm and 5.8 per cent on the Costa Blanca, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

At the start the economic crisis, there where 9,079 workers in the hotel sector in the Alicante Province; this has been reduced to the current 6,103 workers.

Since the beginning of the crisis 10,406 people have lost their jobs in the region, including those in the construction sector.

By Nicole Hallett