Closing your eyes and going mentally into 2020 is likely to relive the feeling of being overwhelmed by the successive shutdowns enforced during the forced marches of the coronavirus pandemic. Those months of house arrest were a practical confirmation of the Latin phrase tempus fugit (time flies). No one will be able to bring back the postponed plans, nor the trips left in the drawer. But the desire to see other places did not go away. They accumulated. And they gave way to a trend that experts christened by that term. revenge tourismtourism’s special revenge against the pandemic.
this revenge tourism Therefore, it expresses the acceleration of the sector this year especially in the summer months and the fact that it exceeded the economic forecasts pointing to a difficult autumn. People chose to look the other way and take the long-awaited journey, taking advantage of the savings they had accumulated in quarantine.
In this context, the recovery in the sector has been faster than expected. In fact, tourism expert from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), pablo diazdefines it as “abnormal”. In the second half of 2022, Spaniards made 44.64 million trips, 10 million more than in the same period in 2021. And this figure is significantly close to the figure recorded in 2019, when they traveled 50.47 million times. In addition, 91.8% of the total is reserved for national territory – up from 90.2% in 2019. “People are looking for safety, not risking it. In these two years, they’ve discovered a half-radius tourist offer that they weren’t aware of,” says the president of the Corporate Association of Specialized Travel Agents (Acave). jordi seagull. Spending rose 115.7% more than in 2021 to 11,657 million euros.
But not only do you travel more and more expensively, you also start traveling differently. It is no longer important to accumulate the destinations visited, but the experiences explain the various operators in the industry. New ways to act and stay marked by digitalization have come into force. Remote workers are becoming more and more nomadic, and young people are basing their search for destinations and accommodation on trends in social networks.
double edged sword
The important weight of tourism in the Spanish economy continues to be foreign visitors. This year though, the last throes of the pandemic have been felt and some countries are still imposing travel restrictions. A lack of Russian tourism was also perceived, paralyzed by the war in Ukraine. Despite this, the country received 55.9 million foreign tourists until September, while 31.2 million foreign tourists visited in the whole of 2021.
In Spain, each foreigner spent an average of 1,182 euros, an increase of 10% compared to September of the previous year. In the first six months of the year, the expenditures of these tourists increased by 209.7% compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 68 billion 137 million Euros.
But this revenge tourism is a double-edged sword. Because this remarkable recovery in the sector can be a bubble open to burst in itself. In other words, once their desires are satisfied, the population is very likely to be brought under control, he explains. Diaz. He also insists on the pressure of inflation, which raises prices, on the sector. Despite six million fewer trips compared to 2019, spending is slightly higher. While it was 11.66 million euros this year, it was 11.43 then.
In the long run, the UOC tourism expert argues, this could mean that travel becomes a specialized activity reserved for people with high purchasing power. Therefore, “the middle class will be excluded from international travel and sent to more local tourism.” It will also lead to shortening of stays and thus a decrease in the sector’s weight in GDP, which was 12.4% in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
Instagrammable places
Another new trend has to do with generational change. Young people are looking for hotels and experiences to post on their social networks, and accommodation establishments are trying to create modern and photographable spaces for them. They also often find organizations through networks to stay impressed by the posts of their trusted influencers.
On the other hand, the implementation of remote work in companies of a digital nature has given way to a new player on the tourism board: the employee who only needs their digital device and a good Wi-Fi connection to carry out their duties. You can work from anywhere in the world, and you usually do this for extended stays.
Barcelona is one of the European cities with the highest number of teleworkers. The director of the city’s hotels union says these workers are “nothing more than a reflection of a much more nomadic generation, accustomed to studying and living outside their home country and normally without children.” Manel Casals.
But what is the real weight of remote work in society? Spain has grown from 4.8% of its working population in 2019 to 10.8% during quarantine. And that figure dropped to 9.5% in 2021.
“We’re already adapting to them, but we’re going to have to do this a lot more with more practical common areas, not just the room,” he says. Casals. There are already hotels facing this direction, but none of the partners has yet decided to devote themselves entirely to this new trend.
Are you traveling by plane?
Tourism at its core has not changed much with the pandemic. But the trends that had begun to manifest before that got stronger. this slow travel One of them. It is well-known among Scandinavian people who are very worried about hotels getting green ratings. Bet on traveling by vehicle such as trains while avoiding the plane. And it goes hand in hand with tourism, known as bicycle tourism, which consists of routes that combine bicycles and other vehicles, especially promoted among European countries.
Various studies suggest that around 115 kilograms of CO is emitted, for example, on a short plane trip equivalent to the distance between Madrid and Barcelona.two per passenger, emissions are zero with the AVE on the same trip.
However, according to flight search engine Kayak, global air travel searches for this fall have increased by nearly 96% compared to those made in 2021. The number of tourists the country received in September was 6.51 million. Just over a million came by road; 240,294 in sea transport and only 28,000 in rail.
Expensive for inflation
Travel has also suffered from runaway inflation. Brigitte HidalgoThe chief operating officer of Weekendesk, a website offering thematic getaways focused on local tourism, assures that its turnover has grown between 5% and 10% compared to 2019. in others, as a direct effect of inflation”. They actually raised the prices of their packages because both the accommodation and the services they included increased by an average of 20%.
While price remains the main determinant in travel preparation, inflation does not seem to frustrate the desire to travel. For example, bookings on Booking.com increased by 8% and revenue by 20% last year.
looking for the unusual
In general, travelers are increasingly demanding innovation in their travel plans, and business people are straining their brains to surprise them.
From the gastronomic experience, you no longer expect just to taste a dish, but to visit the orchards where these foods are grown or chat with the chefs who prepare them. The search for unconventional and special plans is dominated by cultural overtones, and this includes a variety of activities that add value to the act of travelling.
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