Terror threats elsewhere could see Spain enjoy bumper year for tourism

Having seen record numbers of tourists visit in 2015, Spain is on course for an even stronger year this year.

It is a well-known fact that January is the peak booking time for package holidays in the sun. As the festive distractions of Christmas fade from memory, leaving the cold and dark months of January and February stretched out gloomily ahead, thoughts invariably turn to summer sun and fun…

And data and analysis from holiday comparison website TravelSupermarket.com suggests that Spain will experience an even stronger year for tourism in 2016 than it did last year, partly due to growing concerns among holidaymakers that the traditional alternatives – namely Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and Greece – are no longer a safe or sensible option.

In particular, Russian holidaymakers – some of whom appeared to have turned their backs on Spain after enjoying a brief love affair with the country after the turn of the millennium – are set to return in their droves as they choose to shun previous favourite, Egypt, in the wake of the downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in September by Islamist militants.

Allied to further terrorist atrocities in Tunisia last year, Turkey’s uncomfortable proximity to the ongoing conflict in Syria and Iraq, and Greece’s continued economic troubles, Spain’s stability and security stands out, making it even more likely to be the destination of choice for sun-starved northern Europeans this year.

Furthermore, as the economies of Britain and Germany continue to improve, more and more are planning holidays than ever before, the data shows.

“It looks like being a very good year for travel,” said TravelSupermarket.com’s Bob Atkinson. “Brits are very resilient and all our research shows that they intend to travel more – not less – in 2016, to spend more, and to have longer holidays than last year.”

Atkinson added that Spain is now accounting for one-third of all destination searches online – and at a cost to other places. “This time last year Tunisia was being pitched as the place for absolute value,” Atkinson said, “but searches for Tunisia have fallen off a cliff. Paris Disneyland is also suffering a bit. Paris isn’t so much, but the family destination of Disneyland is a different market.”

There are travel restrictions in place to Egypt, as enforced by both the UK and Russian governments, and that is serving to seriously limit the number of tourists heading there.

Additional data from the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) published in December last year also suggests that Spain is in for a bumper year, with bookings for Spanish summer holidays 2016 way ahead of previous years.