2023-08-24 06:15:46
Fins a 591,281 tourists they stayed in Girona hotels during the julyalmost 1% more than a year ago and 9.2% more than 2019. Therefore, it is a new record the month of July before the pandemic when 514,440 travelers passed through in July 2019, according to data from the Hotel Tourism Situation of the National Institute of Statistics. Compared to July 2021 and 2020, this year’s numbers shine even more. With respect to July of these years, the number of tourists staying has increased by 37% and 93%, respectively.
This boom in tourist activity has had a direct impact on employment. Last month the province’s hotels employed 12,094 workersan increase of 5.8 compared to 2022 and 4.9% compared to 2019. Data that the president of the Federation of Hospitality of the Girona Regions, Antonio Escudero, he describes as “deceptive” because, as he explains, “there have been more contracts because the hospitality sector has suffered an exodus of workers and to make up for the layoffs, more contracts have had to be made, but that in no case they have served to expand the workforce”. In this sense, Escudero assures that “companies in the sector have had problems with hiring staff».
Fewer overnight stays
Although there were more tourists in hotels, overnight stays were 2.02% below pre-pandemic figures. The province recorded more than 2.08 million overnight stays last July, while in 2019 there were more than 2.12 million. The main causes, according to the president of the Federation, are three. First of all, he points out that Girona is “a province where low cost companies which bring together many tourists like Ryanair they don’t work properly» to «day loss of tourists from Russia and Ukraine» because of the war. Finally, Escudero explains that the irruption of cheaper tourist areas like them baltic republics has harmed tourism in Girona because “the region cannot compete with prices”.
Despite the fact that the number of tourists who spent the night last July in hotels is slightly lower than in 2019, the degree of occupancy of the places is higher. In the past month it is estimated that hotel occupancy was 71.19%, while in 2019 it was 70.08%. It should also be noted that the number of places in July 2023 was more limited, as 88,854 places were offered, 1.7% more than the year before Covid-19.
Regarding the number of estimated rooms, last July hotels in the demarcation offered 40,593 rooms. A very similar amount to that of 2019, when hotels had 40,197 available.
The area is the queen of tourists
For tourist areas, the Costa Brava it was the most visited place in Catalonia with a total of 552,063 tourists. Of these, 64% are foreigners, while 36% reside in Spain. The total number of tourists far exceeds the 488,264 on the Costa Daurada, the 466,275 on the Barcelona coast; the 30,852 from the Terres de Lleida and the 25,358 that the Vall d’Aran received. According to Escudero, the leadership of the Costa Brava is due to the “great hotel and tourist offer which brings together most of the province’s tourists”.
Despite the leadership of the Costa Brava, this area has lost momentum compared to pre-Covid-19 levels. As for tourists, the figure dropped by 0.26% compared to July 2019 when 553,550 tourists passed through the area. The number of overnight stays has also decreased. If in July before the pandemic 2,063,576 tourists visited the Costa Brava, last July 1,995,080 travelers did so, a number that represents a decrease of 3.3%.
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