The Regional Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Arturo Bernal, today announced the forecasts for the summer, in which Andalusia is expected to exceed the historical record for this season, surpassing for the first time the 11.5 million tourists between July and September.
Bernal has pointed out that, if these expectations are confirmed, the number of visitors would be 5% higher than in the summer of 2022 and 1% more than in the same period of 2019, before the pandemic. A record that would be added to those already experienced at Easter and the May bank holiday.
The growth between July and August will be supported by international tourism, which is expected to increase by around 15% compared to the previous year. For its part, the domestic market will maintain the region as its number one destination and is expected to increase by around 1%.
With this forecast of visitors, it is estimated that hotel establishments in the region will register 20.7 million overnight stays, 6.4% more than in 2022, of which 11 million will correspond to national travellers (1.6% more) and 9.7 million stays to international travellers (12.6% more).
Even more intense is the growth in Andalusian airports, where more than 31,500 flights will operate, offering 5.5 million seats, an increase of 15% compared to the same quarter last year.
In this way, there will be increases in air seats in all the main markets of Andalusia, with increases of more than 30% from Germany and Italy, 28% in Sweden, 27% in Switzerland, 23% in Ireland, 22% in the Netherlands, 17% in Denmark or 12% in Belgium; while from the United Kingdom will increase by 3.6%.
The Minister also stressed that in the destination the summer season extends beyond this quarter, “an Andalusian summer that runs from May to October and that we can consider by climate and tourist activity as high season,” as he argued.
In this sense, he highlighted that the agenda of events that are planned in the region in the second half of the year, among which he referred to the Latin Grammy, the Solheim Cup Golf, the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup tennis or sailing Sail GP, among other appointments.
A proposal of cultural and sporting attractions which, together with the Andalusian tourist offer, “means that we are already detecting an increase in long-term bookings from October onwards”, as he pointed out, while assuring that “more tourists will come, more time will be spent and they will spend more”.
