Political Turmoil Has Greater Impact in Choosing a Holiday Destination than Fear of Terrorist Attacks
BARCELONA (PRWEB) July 17, 2018 -- Analysis carried out by Makespain.com demonstrates that the recent political instability in Barcelona, Spain, sparked a greater concern than the August 2017 terrorist attacks for those wanting to visit the city
• Concerns about safety during a trip to Barcelona multiplied 2.5 times in the last quarter of 2017, a moment of political instability in the city.
• The negative impact on tourism of political turnoil lasts longer than the effects of a terrorist attack
• The search for tourist apartments in Barcelona plummeted to 33% during that period
Due to Barcelona’s significant slowdown in sales to foreign tourists during the last quarter of 2017, Makespain.com, an online travel agency specializing in travel to Spain, has prepared a detailed report to compare the impact on its activity on the tourism sector in Barcelona. This report presents figures, ratios and graphs that provide a true reflection of the reality for tourism demand in Barcelona in Q4 of 2017 and Q1 of 2018. The aforementioned quarters do indeed coincide with political instability in Barcelona.
The report shows an important negative impact of the political situation on the interest of travellers visiting the city of Barcelona. This impact has also occurred following a period of growth in tourism from the previous years and has been much higher than that of the terrorist attack which occurred in Barcelona in the month of August 2017.
In the last quarter of 2017 the search for flights to Barcelona fell by 4.37% from 2016. This fall, if we consider the upward trend of the first half of 2017, shows a real decrease of 16.58% as a result of the political situation.The fall in Barcelona´s touristic activity meant a loss of income of 6 million Euros per day in the last quarter of 2017
The search for accommodation, activities and tours in Barcelona has also been impacted. The most notable case is the tourist apartments. We see for the first time that the number of searches for information and bookings of touristic apartments in city of Madrid, Spain, surpassed that of Barcelona.
The decline in the interest to visit the city stems from the tourist´s fear of the city´s instability.
"We were surprised to see that the impact of the August bombing was much lower than that of the sovereignty process. It seems that people are getting used to living with the horror of an attack while the prolonged situation of a political crisis causes many people to consider that demonstrations, protests or altercations can impact the expected enjoyment during their vacation "– says Luis lechuga, CEO of the portal.
The report has included the analysis of other tourist destinations, not only in Spain, but cities such as Paris, London, Rome and Madrid in which a positive progression was observed in the period analyzed.
"It is impossible to determine who is the winner of a situation like this since the business loss in one destination is split at many others. There are many competing destinations and when the tourist has doubts, he or she will simply leave aside a destination that can involve a risk and opt for another which is their list of places to visit, "explains Luis lechuga.
Makespain.com sells and operates tours from Barcelona and 95% of the demand comes from foreign tourists. The greatest concern for operators of these or other specialized tours is to understand what impact a prolonged situation can have on time.
The report shows that the first quarter of 2018 has experienced a recovery from the suffered falls in the last quarter of 2017. Despite it being 3 months after the peak moment of the political crisis, the negative impact on the interest of visiting the city of Barcelona still persists. In the case of the terrorist attack, the interest in visiting the city and booking reservations recovered just after 3 weeks.
More information on this report can be found at https://makespain.com/report/
Luis Lechuga, Makespain.com, https://www.makespain.com, +34 910145375, [email protected]
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