The collapse of tourism in our country as a consequence of the pandemic is taking its toll on the regions that most depend on international tourism, such as the Canary and Balearic Islands, although, in absolute terms, the most affected community is Catalonia, which it concentrates 20% of the hole generated by the tourism sector.

According to Exceltur, the largest lobby in the sector, this year almost 99,000 million euros will be lost due to the drop in activity. Of that figure, 19,000 million will be lost in the Catalan region. The pandemic has scratched 56% of its tourism activity compared to last year.

This community experienced a wave of outbreaks in July that caused, first a semi-confinement, and, later, that countries like France Germany discouraged their citizens from traveling to this area. The recommendation of Paris fully touches tourism in the region, since France is its main source market. In June, before the outbreaks and after the borders were opened, Catalonia received 76,000 tourists, of which half came from the neighboring country.

As a consequence, a great capital like Barcelona, ​​which at this time last year was invaded by international tourists and where there was even a certain tourist phobia, today is deserted. Many legendary hotels in the Catalan capital have not even opened this summer.

Dependence

Catalonia depends a lot on foreign tourism, which is mainly concentrated in the two central quarters of the year. That is, the confinement (where there was no activity) and the summer period, which has been marked by regrowth.

To this must be added that there is no long-haul tourism (outside the Schengen area, tourists from third countries are practically not allowed in) and that business tourism, vital cities like Barcelona or Madrid, is practically non-existent.

"It is anticipated that Madrid and the main urban destinations will also suffer sharp drops in activity, given the weight that business trips, incentives and congresses have on them and their greater international influx," Exceltur points out in the forecast report published on Tuesday.

After Catalonia, the region most affected by the stoppage of activity is the Balearic Islands, where there is 80% less activity compared to last year. There are 12,000 million lost income. In the midst of a pandemic, a very buoyant summer was not expected, but the outbreaks and restrictions imposed by our main tourist-sending countries (United Kingdom and Germany) have worsened the bad forecasts that already existed.

black summer

These decisions have had a very negative impact and since borders were opened at the end of June, everything has gotten worse: only in the third quarter (the summer months) 36,638 million euros have been left in limbo.

This worsening of the situation occurs because fewer foreigners are arriving than previously thought. International arrivals were assumed to be rare, but not so rare. If last year more than 83 million foreigners visited us, this year we will have 74% less, says Exceltur. That is, we will lose about 60 million visitors.

As of June, only 11 million had arrived, so, according to these calculations, in the best case scenario, some 22 million foreigners will visit us in total this year (compared to the aforementioned 83 million in 2019).

The fact that Spaniards are not going abroad either and are spending their vacations in Spain is not enough to compensate for the hole that the internationals are leaving on our coasts and in our coffers. They are 52,862 million of income in foreign currency that will be lost compared to last year. Only from March to June (during the state of alarm) 27.3 million travelers and 28.4 billion euros of spending were lost, according to the latest data from the INE.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Catalonia
  • Barcelona
  • Balearics
  • Germany
  • Spain
  • France
  • INE
  • Madrid
  • UK
  • economy
  • tourism
  • Paris

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