One million tourists arrived in the Costa Blanca during July , about double the numbers seen in July 2020 and a large majority of them Spanish.

Indeed 85% of the people who stayed in hotels and apartments on the Costa Blanca travelled from within Spain while just 15% arrived from overseas.

The figures were 30% fewer than in 2019 but twice as many as in July 2020. The average occupancy of the 60,000 operational beds in hotels and apartments was 70%. The province currently has 194 hotels open, just 75% of those that could be available.

For August, the average occupancy forecasts are similar, but the president of Hosbec, Toni Mayor, forecasts that some hotels may reach 90%, a figure that was enjoyed in 2019, pre-pandemic.

According to the survey made public on Friday by Turisme , the average occupancy forecast for all the hotels on the Valencian Community coastline during the month of August stands at 65.8%, 26.5% more than in 2020.

Hotels on the Alicante coast (excluding Benidorm) expect to occupy 68.78% of their beds this month, 29.1% more than in 2020. Benidorm expects an occupancy for August of 65% (20 % more than the forecasts for August 2020), Alicante expects 70% and the city of Valencia is at 60%, 21.5% more than last year. Hotels say that they are confident that they will be able to increase the percentages with last minute bookings, particularly after last week’s announcement by the British government that Spain is to remain on the UK Amber Travel list.

The regional secretary for Tourism, Francesc Colomer, said that “August starts with an average of two out of three occupied hotel beds and everything seems to indicate, if the health situation allows, that it will reach 75% of tourist occupancy with last minute reservations, even 80% in some of the more popular destinations.”