The latest data published by the Spanish tourism office, Turespaña, has revealed a 9.8 per cent year-on-year spike in the number of slight seats offered in October 2023 compared to the same month in 2022, which saw a total of 9.6 million seats.
According to statistics, compared to September 2019, there is a significant difference of 393,552 more places since October of that year recorded a total of 10.1 million planned places.
For this month of October, the good performance of Poland stands out (47.4 per cent more seats planned than in October 2022), the Czech Republic (26.6 per cent above a year ago) and Portugal (21.2 per cent year-on-year growth). Also noteworthy is the year-on-year growth in seats on flights scheduled from Mexico this October, 20.5 per cent more.
As Turespana data points out, Portugal has also performed well, with an increase year-on-year growth rate of 21.2 per cent. The same source also noted that Mexico experienced a growth rate of 20.5 per cent compared to the previous year.
Commenting on these data, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, emphasised that they show not only the strengthening of European markets but also the positive development of distant markets, such as Mexico and the United States.
He further highlighted the importance of maintaining and securing air connectivity to promote Spain as a sustainable, diverse, and high-quality destination for travellers.
The projection is that this last quarter of the year will round off an extraordinary year for tourism in our country, which everything indicates will continue in 2024.
Regarding the percentage of seats on scheduled flights by country, the United Kingdom takes the lead, with 22.7 per cent of the total reserved seats. Next is Germany with 14.9 per cent and Italy with 8.9 per cent. Together, these three countries account for nearly half of all reserved seats.
Previously, Spanish authorities revealed that airlines had reserved over 32.4 million seats for flights to Spain between June and August 2022, showing a remarkable recovery of 94 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
In this regard, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism said that among the markets that sent visitors to Spain, the most are Austria, with an increase of 7.1 per cent, followed by Norway with 6.9 per cent, Denmark with 6.2 per cent and Poland with 2.3 per cent.
