Consultations at the L'Estartit Tourist Office during the summer exceed those of the pre-pandemic season

Consultations at the L’Estartit Tourist Office have returned to pre-pandemic levels with an increase of almost 7% compared to 2019 and 25% compared to last year.

Between Easter and September, months considered summer season at a statistical level, there have been more than 29,300 requests for information and a clear recovery in foreign tourism, which had stopped coming due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic. After two summers marked by measures to deal with Covid-19, this has been the first summer season in two years that has been able to be lived normally and the figures reflect this.

Clear recovery of tourism from outside Spain

Compared to last year, there is a clear recovery in foreign tourism with nationalities doubling and tripling the number of inquiries received at the tourist office. This is the case of Italian tourists who made 237 inquiries, 302% more than the previous year; Scandinavian tourists with 134 inquiries, 227% more than last year and tourists from Eastern European countries with 134 inquiries, 227% more. Germans, Dutch and Belgians have also returned to L’Estartit with 914, 1292 and 729 inquiries respectively; 46%, 56% and 42% more than in 2021.

The Catalan and French audiences, pillars of the destination

French tourism is still a mainstay of the Torroella-Estartit-Illes Medes destination and is the one that has made the most inquiries at the l’Estartit Tourist Office with 11,201, 88% more than in 2021. If we compare it with pre-pandemic figures, the Catalan and Spanish audiences have consolidated in l’Estartit with 8,618 and 4,289 inquiries respectively. 13 and 38% more than in 2019 respectively.

The British market is still feeling Brexit, but is on the rise

The British public continues to notice the double conditioning of the pandemic and Brexit when coming to L’Estartit and has suffered a 38% decrease compared to 2019, but, on the other hand, has increased by 266% compared to 2021, also marking the path to recovery for this market.

Increase in consultations from all nationalities in Torroella

At the Tourist Information Point in Torroella de Montgrí, this recovery of the pre-pandemic tourist pulse has been even more noticeable with 5,771 consultations, 4,306 more than in 2019 and 2,307 more than last year. The Catalan market is the main one with 3,301 consultations, 400% more than in 2019, followed by the French market with 926 consultations, 131% more than in 2019 and the Spanish market with 336 consultations, 200% more than in 2019. In the case of Torroella de Montgrí, consultations made by people of British, German, Dutch, Italian, Belgian, Scandinavian or Eastern European nationality have increased.

The challenge of deseasonalization

From the Tourism Area, the councilor, Dúnia Oliveras , has shown her satisfaction with the levels of occupancy this summer and has highlighted that “figures have been reached that exceed those of 2019”. Oliveras has indicated that the challenge now is “to maintain or exceed these levels of occupancy and to deseasonalize them as much as possible”.

DOCUMENTATION

• Check the data between 2019 and 2022 at the L’Estartit Tourist Office
• Check the data between 2019 and 2022 at the Torroella Tourist Information Point