Greece Among Top Choices for Spanish Travelers this Summer

As countries continue to lift Covid-19 restrictions, Spaniards are being encouraged to travel abroad and Greece is among their top holiday choices for this summer, a recent survey by ForwardKeys reveals.

According to the survey, several international destinations have recorded a higher number of bookings from Spanish travelers compared to 2019.

The Spanish outbound market for summer is just 25 percent below 2019 levels, but certain destinations, such as Egypt, are recording considerably greater booking volumes than before the pandemic.

The destinations consequently showing the highest growth for July and August as compared with 2019 levels are Egypt (+81 percent), the United Arab Emirates (+39 percent), Sweden (+36 percent), Tanzania (+28 percent), Greece (+23 percent), the Dominican Republic (+21 percent), Qatar (+21 percent), France (+20 percent), the Maldives (+10 percent), Argentina and Norway (both +6 percent).

“Given that a large proportion of these kinds of trips are booked through travel agencies, these figures give us cause for optimism and reason to believe that we can have a positive season this year following two years with very few sales,” says Carlos Garrido, president of CEAV – the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies.

Garrido also estimated that these numbers may increase further, since people tend to book their trips at the last minute in the post-Covid era.

ForwardKeys is a collaborative partner of CEAV.

A promising summer for travel agencies

While national tourism is rebounding at a significant pace, travel agencies, which depend on outbound tourism, MICE and business travel, are recovering somewhat more slowly. However, data provided by ForwardKeys points towards a promising summer for travel agencies.

ForwardKeys Head of Market Intelligence Juan A Gómez explains that although bookings for total outbound travel remain low compared with 2019 levels – and far below the impressive figures reflecting travel to Spain from the international market – the number of Spanish visitors to certain international destinations is set to grow significantly compared with summer 2019.

“Travel agencies will have a crucial role to play when it comes to transmitting confidence to the Spanish tourist in this summer of travel recovery,” he says.