Summer Season Figures

- The Region of Valencia had 5 consecutive years of growth in all the main tourism indicators, both economic (tourism GDP, contribution to tax collection, number of tourist arrivals and distribution throughout the year, increase of the average stay and spending capacity, ...) and social (direct and indirect employment, quality of employment, ….). This until the COVID pandemic heated Europe.

- As the importance of international demand over total travelers has also constantly increased since 2014 (reaching more than 35% of the total and in some local destinations more than 60% with 9.6 million international tourists), 70% less international tourists received by Valencia Region in comparison with 2019 had a substantial impact on the local economy.

- In August, international flights and passengers both decreased by 75% if compared with the same month of the previous year. The vast majority (81%) of passengers flew with low-cost airlines - with a decrease of -74%. On the other hand, traditional companies, with the remaining 19% of passengers, experimented a decrease by -78%

- The Region as a whole, has somewhat dampened the negative results of this summer, reaching a hotel average occupancy of 50% in the middle months of this year. The fact this is a little bit above other Spanish regions more dependent on international demand, is partly motivated by the significant volume of tourists from Madrid who have their second residence on our coasts.

- Inland and rural destinations within our region had not such bad results, as they are not as dependent from international demand as the sun and beach destinations.

- However, in general terms, the overall regional accommodation capacity has been reduced by about 30%, meaning that 3 out of 10 beds have not been made available by the hotel managers, as they did not had enough volume of bookings.

- Consequently, tourism profit-earning capacity and employment related to this activity have suffered notably.

Tourism and regional recovery plan 

The region of Valencia has set up a Recovery Plan for Tourism against COVID -19 “RECUPERATUR COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA 2020”.

More information is available here

Regional expectations from the EU Recovery Measures

Destinations and tourism companies from the Region of Valencia expect from NEXT GENERATION EU to be very sensitive to the urgent need to “re-float” the tourism sector, especially in those holiday destinations that – as part of the Mediterranean – they are so dependent on the flow of travel from central and northern Europe to be maintained throughout the year.

Check the full Report on the Balance of the Tourism Season in 2020 in NECSTouR Regions