The agencies acknowledge the “excessive” price increase of hotels and assure that the holiday in December is “worse than expected” for national tourism due to the wave of cancellations due to bad weather
Travel agencies were one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic. The proof of this is that they are the only ones who have managed to stay in the ERTE – currently the RED mechanism – from April 1 – with conditions similar to those of the pandemic until December 31, which they ask to extend until March . But the return of tourism has caused reservations to skyrocket, with 64% of agencies reckoning their revenue has remained the same or improved from 2019, though 36% continue to say it has worsened.
At a press conference, Carlos Garrido, president of the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies (CEAV), is “moderately optimistic” about the 2023 projections, as 29% of travel agencies believe their billing will improve, compared to 13.7% who believe it will get worse. He assured that hotel and transportation prices have remained more stable when contracted with an agency than directly with the operator, as they closed rates before inflation skyrocketed.
In this sense, Garrido found the price increase that hotels register “excessive” (the average room was almost 100 euros in October, 16% more than in 2019, according to INE data) due to the effects of energy costs, increased staff and food costs. Despite this price increase, the desire to travel is intense and Garrido positively appreciated the long December weekend that ended last Sunday, but only in international destinations, which account for 75% of travel agency sales.
And it is that the bad weather, with rainfall in almost all of Spain, has led thousands of people to cancel their national trips at the last minute. “The data from the bridge at the national level is worse than expected due to the effect of time, although it has not affected the departure of Spanish tourists abroad,” said Garrido, who confirmed that more trips have been made on this december bridge abroad. than on the same dates in 2019.
The pandemic has hit the industry so hard that, according to CEAV data, there are 10% of outlets closed in 2020 that have not yet opened, representing some 800 travel companies. In addition, Garrido explained that there has been a concentration in large companies to better weather the crisis, while small ones tend to disperse.
Regarding the thousands of travel cancellations that occurred in the early months of the pandemic, Garrido assured that tourists who booked without a travel agent had more problems getting their money back than those who used an intermediary. He even confirmed that there are still some cases of providers who have not refunded the full amount to the agencies that they were supposed to advance to the clients at the time.
To boost the industry, he asked the authorities to withdraw the mandatory use of masks on airplanes, as airlines have done on several occasions, as Spain is the only EU country enforcing this rule. Garrido described it as “nonsense” because he assures that there are tourists who prefer to go to the United States on a non-Spanish airline to avoid wearing a mask for so many hours, which harms businesses and the national economy.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
