If a while ago they had asked us (to you, to me or any) where we had to pass the vacations, we would have responded that Bali, Italy either Barcelonadepending on the tastes and budget of each one. What is almost certain is that wherever we imagine we would imagine in short sleeve, wearing shirts, with cap and sunglasses. Normal, right? Except for the Snow loversvacations has always been synonymous with summer and high temperatures.
In a Spain that deal chronically with Heat waves, droughts and saturation Of his great island destinations and the Mediterranean coast that is no longer so.
On vacation with a scarf. With the sector in record levels and increasingly foreigners in hotels, in Spain the flow of tourists grows throughout the year. In the cold months. And of course in the warm, the most associated with the offer of “Sun and Beach” that so well worked for years to the hospitality industry. The INE data and independent studies They show however that more and more travelers are, when planning their vacations, they look for dates in winter.
What do the figures say? That in Spain tourism not only grows during the summer months. He also does it in winter. And at a good pace. Between October and December 2024 The INE counted 24.5 million travelers in their hotel occupancy survey, 35% more than during the same months of 2014 and 72% higher than the same balance of 2004. Between January and March the flow of travelers was 20.6 million, which also leaves increases of 43 and 74%, respectively.
Growing more in percentage terms is “easier” when you start from low data, so it is normal for tourist increase percentages to be more bulky during the cold months than summer. Even so, the differences between them are interesting. In 2024 the INE registered 38.1 million tourists between July and September, 25% more than a decade before and 56% above 2004. In both cases they are increased increases than those of winter.
The cold weight of the cold. The observatory shows that despite the Increased tourists That Spain has registered over the last years, winter has not lost weight in the sector. On the contrary, they have been reinforced as a holiday period. If in 1999 the coldest months (December-February) brought together 21.7% of the total number of travelers counted by the INE throughout the year, in 2024 that portion of the cake was somewhat larger, of 22.2%. It is not a great increase, but significant.
In the specific case of foreign tourists, arriving from other countries, the increase was even greater: the contribution from winter to the annual balance passed in that case from 18% of 1999 to touch 20% in 2024. The data is extracted from the Hotel occupation survey of the INE, with which other types of accommodation exclude.
When do you travel? A few days ago the economist Ángel Talavera shared in x Another study, with cross data from Oxford Economics and Aemet, in which it is appreciated how tourism grows at a good pace in winter and autumn, even more than during the “peak” summer weeks. Reading is the same: in a stage of general tourism growth, new travelers who move in Spain do not focus only on the warmest months. They also look at the scarf months.
In favor of the flow of tourists in winter he has played The bet of some Spanish cities for Christmas, especially cities such as Madrid, Badalona or Vigo, which have made it one of its main tourist claims. This year the Galician city even launched a promotional campaign with posters in New YorkLondon, Rome or Paris in which he presumed from his Christmas decoration.
Not everything is positive factors. Winter tourism has had to deal with The crisis of skiing stations, conditioned (and in many cases forced to reinvent themselves) Before snow shortage and “lightning” seasons.
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Great ally to great threat. The data collected by the INE and Oxford Economics are interesting because they are framed in a broader phenomenon and that over recent years have analyzed other organisms, such as European Travel Commission (Etc) or Caixabanck Researchsand that can also be followed with the help of The international press: The heat that for decades served as an ally to the Spanish tourism sector and made Spain a destination coveted by citizens of countries more north now threatens to become an enemy.
The reason is simple. Between heat waves and chronified droughts, added to the saturation of Great destinations of the Mediterranean or the Canary Islandsforeign travelers have begun to look with more temperate alternatives.
Rethinking the holidays. The data From etc. they are revealing: 33.7% of Europeans avoid places where they are exposed to extreme meteorological phenomena, such as heat waves, and 17.3% directly discards the regions in which mercury can rise too much during Your trips. Moreover, 8.5% of respondents recognize that they have begun to change the months in which they travel.
And etc is not the only one to detect that trend. The United Kingdom Tourist Operators Association (ABTA) suggests That the months of “middle season”, such as October, May or June (either icy or achicharrantes) have become the most popular among the British who plan a vacation abroad.
One and no more. The relationship between the thermometer and tourism was analyzed a while ago CaixaBank Researchs in A broad study in which he slid another interesting idea: foreign visitors who have to live a heat wave during their vacations are less likely to repeat destiny. To be more precise and in the case of Spain, its willingness to return falls from 14 to 12.1%.
And that is the average. The percentage varies between nationalities. Americans, for example, do not seem willing to sweat during their vacations. Among those who have touched a heat wave in Spain the inclination to repeat fate falls 42.5%. Even the foreign press has criticized Sometimes the inconvenience suffered by their compatriots in Spain during droughts. The phenomenon coincides with an increase of interest in colder countries, such as Scandinavians.
Images | James Crane (Flickr) and SRGPICKER (Flickr)