Spain Hopes Easter Travel to Lift Tourism

(Reuters) - Spain expects international tourist arrivals to reach 80% of pre-pandemic volumes in the second quarter as northern Europeans shrug off concerns over the Ukraine conflict and return en masse for Easter, a senior tourism official said on Friday.

Any future hit from the war to Spanish tourism would depend on its duration and intensity, he told a news conference.

Bookings for the long Easter weekend have already reached 90% of 2019 levels, according to data from market-intelligence firm ForwardKeys he showed at the news conference.

Reservations from Denmark and Sweden were nearly 40% higher than over the same period before the pandemic, while the number is 26% higher for Germans and 13% for Britons, the data showed. The number of tourists from the United States is around 26% lower than in 2019.

The Balearic and Canary Islands are among the fastest recovering destinations, with Ibiza and Tenerife registering more Easter bookings than before COVID, the ForwardKeys data showed.