Spain Hotel Recovery Strengthens Just as Omicron Surges

The number of nights booked by tourists in Spanish hotels surged five-fold in November from the same month a year earlier, but was still 20% lower than in November 2019, data released on Thursday showed.

The number of nights booked rose to 14.8 million in November, up from 2.8 million in the same month in 2020, the National Statistics Department said on Thursday.

About 40% of the hotel rooms were booked by Spanish residents, and most of the foreigners went to the Canary Islands. The winter is a strong season for the Canaries, where Northern European like to travel to enjoy the warm weather.

The data is encouraging for the tourism-dependent Spanish economy, which has seen a strong recovery of the industry in the past months, although the Omicron variant may have a negative impact.

The government expects the number of foreign tourists coming to the country in the fourth quarter would reach two-thirds of its 2019 level, before the pandemic struck.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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