MADRID—Spain’s tourist outlook for the summer is dismal with sales dropping between 5 and 10 percent as vacationers cut back on spending and the length of hotel stays, predicted Simón Pedro Barceló, president of Barceló Corporación Empresarial hotel and travel group.
“This year is going to be very difficult as we’ve already seen from the 20-percent fall in industry sales during the first four months of the year, which was the low season,” Barceló said at an economic conference in the Spanish capital.
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Simón Pedro Barceló
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While the total decline in sales for 2009 could be between 10 and 15 percent compared to the previous year, Spain won’t see such a pronounced drop as last year when tourism spending was estimated at 30 percent less than in 2007, he said.
“People will still go on vacations this year, however their holidays might be shorter or they won’t go as far,” he said. “The problem is, no one really knows.”
Spain’s industry ministry recently reported tourism spending was off more than 7 percent from the same period last year and visitor numbers from major generating markets also are down, especially from Britain, where the weak pound-to-euro exchange rate is harming continental destinations.
Barceló, the third-largest hotel operator in Spain and the 24th largest in the world, currently owns, rents or manages 187 hotels worldwide, as well as a travel agency chain and other tourism-related businesses.
Barceló praised the Spanish government’s efforts to attract quality tourism, which officials describe as big spenders who want to experience the delights of the country’s heritage, culture and gastronomy instead of the low market sea-and-sand crowd.
“But I believe the only bad tourist is the one who doesn’t come to Spain,” he joked.
Regarding Barceló’s foreign properties, the president said the company was experiencing very difficult moments with low occupancy and a big loss of activity, citing Mexico, where occupancy was around 20 percent last month, which he blamed largely on the H1N1 flu scare.
Because of the decline in earnings, the group had reduced its investments this year to €100 million (US$139 million), a 75percent drop from the €400 million (US$558 million) it spent in 2008, Barceló said.
“That’s an important cut-back, but you have to remember in 2007 and 2008, we made the biggest investments in the company’s history,” he added.
