Calpe visitor numbers rise

THE DEPARTMENT of tourism in Calpe this week released provisional figures for tourist occupancy in June and July, which reveal an increase of 9% and 10% respectively, compared to the same month in 2017.

In June the occupancy was recorded at 75.91%, compared to 66.22% in the same month of 2017. In July the occupation reached 82.65%, compared to 72.61% for that month a year ago

This growth is explained by an increase in occupancy in the non-hotel sector - campsites and apartments – as the rates for hotels stayed relatively at the same level.

In June, hotel occupancy was 87.22% compared to 84.44% in the same month last year, while in the non-hotel sector it was 68.86% compared to 56.14%. In July the occupancy rate was 87.26% in the hotel sector compared to 88.76% in 2017 and 77.19% compared to 64.12% last year.

Councillor for tourism, Jan Van Parijs expressed moderate satisfaction with these figures - as they are still provisional - and said they contrasted to the downward trend that has been recorded in general in the tourist figures of other Spanish. This is possibly due to the recovery of other destinations such as Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Greece.

“These are figures that point to a good tourism campaign and that surprise us positively, because despite the recovery situ- ation of other markets, in Calpe we have managed to maintain practically the same hotel occupancy figures and increase those of the campsites and apartments.” said Van Parijs.

As for the nationalities that visited Calpe in July, there was an increase of Spanish tourists, from 51% to 56%, a decrease of French visitors, from 16% to 11.5%, and of German 3.7% percent to 2.7%. Those visiting from the UK and Belgium maintained the same figures of 13% and 6% respectively.