Looking ahead to Christmas

BUYING a ticket for the big Christmas lottery is a summer holiday must-have for Spanish tourists, especially in Costa Blanca resorts. 
In a year when Covid-19 has already changed so much, lottery administrations have noticed a 30 per cent reduction in over-the-counter sales but while online sales have increased, they foresee a slump in September, when the schools re-start. 
To date, the Christmas Lottery campaign has been “hard, strange and different,” the president of the Alicante Province Association of Lottery Sellers, Manuel Soto, told the Spanish media. 
“It’s a riddle and impossible to predict,” he said. 
Administrations have also seen a fall in sales to Fiestas committees, Holy Week brotherhoods, Moors and Christians or other groups who raise funds by selling lottery tickets with a small surcharge each week. 
The picture is rosier inland, some administrations found. 
“People who live here haven’t gone away but rural tourism has increased and people are coming to stay in country properties,” said Paqui Camarena who runs an Ibi lottery administration. 
Nevertheless, she too has had fewer requests for the Christmas lottery from local associations, while many bars – usually good clients – are still closed.