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COVID-19

‘Not worth it’: German tourists cancel holidays to Covid-hit Spain

After German public health authorities placed Spain on the Covid high-incidence list, some holidaymakers are choosing to stay at home.

Published: 27 July 2021 11:51 CEST
'Not worth it': German tourists cancel holidays to Covid-hit Spain
Two police officers stand in front of a Mallorcan quarantine hotel on June 30th, 2021. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/EUROPA PRESS | Isaac Buj

The decision to reclassify Spain as a high-incidence area from Tuesday onwards has been sharply criticised by the German travel industry, who fear the decision will spell an early end to the peak summer season.

“Upgrading Spain in the middle of the school break means that, for numerous travellers, and above all families with children, their holiday plans are null and void,” said Norbert Fiebig, president of the German Travel Association. 

According to the trade group, around 400,000 German tourists are likely to be in Spain right now, with tens of thousands holidaying in the so-called ’17th German state’ of Mallorca.

When they return, everyone – including small children – faces up to 10 days in quarantine, unless they can prove they are vaccinated against or have recovered from Covid. With a negative test, they can end their quarantine after five days.

While many vaccinated adults may still opt to travel, younger travellers who aren’t fully jabbed yet – and families with children for whom no Covid vaccines are approved – could well decide it isn’t worth the hassle.

READ ALSO: Can families with unvaccinated children holiday in Germany this summer?

“It’s good that we cancelled,” said Nadine, a user on a Mallorcan travel forum. “It’s not worth it if you have to quarantine with children afterwards.”

Others, meanwhile, said they would wait to see if more travel restrictions were imposed before reaching a decision.

Though the announcement on Spain was only made on Friday, hotel companies were already seeing a 30 percent drop-off in bookings even before the changes were confirmed – potentially due to ongoing uncertainty.

Infections have been skyrocketing in Spain since they sunk down to single-digits in June. Nationwide, the 7-day incidence of Covid infections per 100,000 residents stands at 380, while in Mallorca, this figure is now well over 400.

READ ALSO: TRAVEL: Germany puts Spain and Netherlands on Covid ‘high incidence’ list

According to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, regions that exceed the 200 mark are closely observed to see if they should be classified as high-incidence. After being classed as risk areas earlier in July, both Spain and the Netherlands both had their risk status upgraded last week, with the new rules coming into force on Tuesday. 

Mallorcan quarantine hotels ‘overwhelmed’

Beyond the travel restrictions on the German end, new restrictions in Mallorca are already putting a dampener on the island’s famously boozy nightlife.

At the weekend, the popular holiday destination introduced a curfew between the hours of 1am and 6am to attempt to quell what the authorities see as an excessive and irresponsible party culture.

Now, restaurants and bars must shut at this hour, and police have started to patrol the most popular beaches with drones and helicopters.

Hundreds of holidaymakers have already been infected while travelling on the island, and there are reports that quarantine hotels are at capacity, while local officials are overwhelmed by the number of cases. 

The number of positive test results on return to Germany is also on the rise. The Robert Koch Institute estimates that around 10 percent of Germany’s new infections can be attributed to holidaymakers returning from abroad.

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TOURISM

How much more expensive will holidays in Spain be this summer?

Whether it be hotel prices rising or shortages in the aviation sector making flights more expensive, a summer vacation in Spain this year is likely to cost more than last year.

Published: 25 April 2024 09:13 CEST
How much more expensive will holidays in Spain be this summer?

With lingering inflation, drought conditions, rising rents and building social tension surrounding the impact of mass tourism on Spanish society, summer 2024 could be an eventful one in Spain for a number of reasons.

It will probably also be more expensive than it was in the past, especially if you’re staying in a hotel or tourist apartment.

This follows a bumper Easter period that saw high occupancy and price rises across the country, and if forecasts and industry experts are anything to go by, it’s a trend that will continue into the summer season.

READ ALSO: ‘The island can’t take it anymore’: Why Tenerife is rejecting mass tourism

Hotel prices March increased by 10 percent compared to the same period in 2023, and have now experienced 34 consecutive months of price increases.

The average hotel room in Spain during March cost €109.2 per night, according to Hotel Tourism Situation data published by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

How much more expensive will flights to Spain be this summer?

Firstly, flights. Aviation industry experts suggest that a perfect storm of conditions could cause the price of flights to increase for summer 2024. A shortage of commercial planes, caused mainly by a combination of problems on Boeing’s production line and Airbus having difficulties with engine manufacturers, will likely drive up prices around the world.

These “are factors that don’t make it easy for prices to fall,” according to Pere Suau, professor of Economics and Business Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, who admitted that “it is difficult to measure the extent to which” they will go up. The key, in Suau’s opinion, is to see how demand will be affected by price rises. “As of today prices are rising, but demand is tolerating it, demand continues to grow,” he adds.

Reports in the Spanish media suggest that prices on budget airlines like Ryanair could rise by around 10 percent.

READ ALSO: EasyJet opens Spanish base in Alicante with ten new routes

How much more expensive will hotels in Spain be this summer?

So, flights will likely be more expensive this year. But what about hotels?

It’s difficult to say exactly by how much hotel prices will have risen by summer, but most estimates put it at somewhere in the 8-12 percent range, depending on factors such as location, occupancy, type of accommodation (ie. is it luxury or budget) and length of stay.

However, despite that, most experts seem to think the price rises will be slightly less than the 2023-23 year-on-year increases, when average hotel room costs shot up by 16.5 percent, according to statistics from SRT and Cushman & Wakefield.

Albert Grau, partner at Cushman & Wakefield’s Hospitality department in Spain, told El Periódico de España that: ‘We expect there to continue to be growth in prices… although it will be more moderate, in single digits, compared to the large increase in the last year.”

Spanish news outlet La Sexta reports that hotel rooms in the summer will be on average 11 percent more than last year, according to figures from INE and Travelgate.

Forecasts by American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) put Barcelona, long a popular tourist destination, among European cities where a significant increase in hotel prices is expected, with a projected rise of 9 percent. Other Spanish cities, such as Bilbao and Valencia, are forecast to see price jumps of around 8.5 percent.

In Andalusia, hotel sector insiders in Andalusia are expecting a 7 percent increase overall this summer, according to Trinitario Bertore, director of Hotel Plaza Nueva in Granada, who spoke to La Sexta. Bertore said a night’s stay in a hotel in Andalusia can now cost up to €210, a 7 percent rise compared to last summer.

José Luis Contreras, managing director of Apartamentos Valencia Costera, said prices in tourist flats in Valencia will also rise by around 7 percent and even reach an eye-watering €350 per night in the high season.

Both Bertore and Contreras said that there’s no need to lower prices because demand is increasing, despite the per night rate increases.

It seems clear that accommodation will likely be a more expensive for summer 2024 in Spain than it was last year, though the year-on-year rise will slow slightly. Most forecasts put the average expected hotel price rises at roughly 10-11 percent overall.

By exactly how much will depend on several factors: where you’re staying, and whether it’s a traditional tourist spot such as parts of Andalusia, Alicante, Valencia or the Canary and Balearic Islands; whether it’s a hotel or apartment; the quality of the accommodation; how long you’re staying; how far in advance you book; when exactly in the summer season you’ll visit Spain.

Aviation industry uncertainty also means that flights will become more expensive, so both travel and accommodation are likely to be more expensive in Spain this summer.

Tourism makes up a significant portion of Spain’s GDP. Predicted tourism earnings for 2024 are expected to bring in €202.65 billion, an 8.6 percent increase on 2023, a record year.

However, growing anti-mass tourism sentiment has been bubbling in Spanish society for some time now, with protests in various cities around the country decrying the impact, among other things, of Spain’s tourism model on the local housing market.

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