Alex Trelinski
THE number of visitors staying in Costa Blanca hotels set a new January record with 227,388 people according to the National Institute of Statistics(INE).
Overnight stays from overseas totalled 509,434- the highest January figure since 2006 and the fourth best total of the century.
Domestic visitors accounted for 116,509 people, the second highest figure ever- only beaten by the 125,000 recorded in 2019.
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Last month’s returns show significant progress towards deseasonalisation of the hotel sector, with 332 establishments open- 30 more than a year ago.
Over 58,000 rooms were available leading to an average occupancy of 47%, which rose to under 52% at weekends.
The news also reflects that more than 7,500 people were employed during January- up by 415 a year ago.
Taking into account the whole of Alicante Province, overnight stays amounted to 905,160 with 528,595 foreign travellers.
The province’s Institute of Economic Studies(Ineca) said that national tourism is close to 42% and continues ‘a downward trend’.
Overnight stays grew by 3.9%, above the national average, which has made the province ‘recover market share’ accounting for 5.4% of Spain’s total, according to Ineca.
This was down to a 6.6% increase in foreign tourists, which rose two percentage points above the Spanish average.
