Spain visitors down – rates cut

With Spain visitor numbers down, over the Euro. City break hotel rates in Spain have been trashed amid Spain’s latest tourism crisis.

The average rate for a hotel in Madrid this month is £72, a fall from £107 in July last year, while Barcelona’s rates had dropped by 29%, from £138 to £89, over the same period.

Granada and Valencia both suffered a 28% fall, while a room in Pamplona last week on the eve of the city’s famous bull-running festival, usually the most expensive period of the year, was available for only £62.

Agustin Garcia, head of promotions for the Spanish Tourist Office in the UK, recently told Cheaperholidays he did not expect the sector to recover until at least 2011.

“This year for many it’s a case of let’s see how it goes. But the fear is that there will be an economic hangover deep into 2010, and that is a concern.”

Spain’s unemployment rate is predicted to hit 20% in 2010, the highest rate for more than two decades.