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Hoteliers foresee a historic June and high occupancy in summer, although the vacation traveler will be somewhat less profitable than the current one
The festival Spring Sound will return to fill the accommodation of Barcelona this weekend, as was the case with the F1 Grand Prix, but beyond the pull of the big events, the city is experiencing a spring of business records that no one could predict at the beginning of the year. A very high hotel occupancy is expected for July and August, around 85% and in line with 2019, but not as profitable as in May and June, when the vacation traveler is joining the professional, that finally returns to hold meetings in the Catalan capital, promoting the price recovery that defended the city council to avoid a traveler of offers.
The Barcelona Hotel Guild has made public this Wednesday the latest data from the sector and the forecasts for the coming months, always conditioned to any new complication of the pandemic. What can be seen daily with the naked eye in the center of the city already adds up to figures that confirm the accelerated recovery of the activity.
In March, an occupancy rate of 68% was reached, at an average of 125.8 euros per night and with almost a third of establishments closed. But in April 83% was already achieved (with 10% closed) and at around 150 euros, which meant 13.4 euros more than in the same month of 2019. in the absence of closing May, that trend is consolidatedthanks to events such as the ISE fair or the aforementioned F1, which have soared the affluence and also the profitability, and an avalanche of business meetings. “The halls and meeting spaces of the hotels are full,” said the president of the employers’ association, Jordi Clos.
Some hoteliers individually consider that their data even exceeds 2017 (record year) in terms of rates and that arrival forecasts are more than optimistic for the entire season.
With prudence, Manel Casals, director of the guild, admits that May and June have been the best of historical data in terms of business for the sector (not in terms of occupancy, slightly below). Summer offers more unknowns, because the traveler profiles for July and August are purely for vacations and prices moderate, Clos recalled. In July there are already between 50 and 60% of reservations, which are expected to reach 85%, which means almost full in the most central areas.
The price debate
Those rates have become the subject of debate after the Councilor for Tourism, Xavier Marcé, defended a few weeks ago an increase to filter out a traveler with more purchasing power and really interested in visiting the city. This Wednesday, in the same act, the mayor pointed out that what Barcelona must avoid is entering into “price wars” with other destinations (during the pandemic it lowered its price to be more competitive in the national market, since the international market was paralyzed) and devalue its traveler profile.
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Clos has stressed that this situation has been reversing since March. He maintains that there is a certain visitor who is not interested in Barcelona and is already stopping coming because the price is not advantageous now. For Marcé, the city continues “to be competitive“compared to other great destinations, but when revalued, it avoids the visitor motivated only by the offers.
The councilor has also firmly defended the economic impact of local tourism, not only for the directly linked sectors, but also for the image and global projection of the city in terms of business, innovation and entrepreneurial activity. Contrary to Mayor Colau, she has defended cruise ships, has referred to the user figures as a base port and has advocated improving their management together with the Port of Barcelona.