In more cases, they are older, are not conditioned by standard holiday periods and book longer stays. The change in the tourist profile can be seen at the end of the season, with the focus on the last quarter of the year.
For the moment, the *Dingus DataHotel indicators show that bookings start to fall towards the end of September and that 48.8% of them have been made less than one month in advance. Towards the end of the month is when the ratio of bookings of more than eight nights increases considerably (close to 50%), probably driven by the autumn tourist who travels mainly as a couple: 61.8%. Families went from representing 27% of bookings to less than 10%.
Based on the data for October and December, no extension of the season can be observed in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands to date. Confirmed bookings currently account for 41% of 2019 bookings. The Spanish territory that has experienced the best recovery in September compared to sales in the last year before the pandemic is the Canary Islands. However, the high season begins in the archipelago with bookings that still do not reach half of the room nights of that year (2019). But it should be borne in mind that around 40% of what is being booked now is for autumn tickets, so a considerable increase can be expected in the coming weeks.
Situation in the Caribbean
In the hotels connected to Dingus in the Caribbean area, bookings are decreasing as September progresses, but to a lesser extent than in Spain. In fact, we believe that they will increase because 15% have been confirmed less than seven days in advance. Another fact related to the behaviour of travellers choosing the Caribbean is that stays are shortening (less than four nights in bookings for the end of September in 55.1% of cases) and couples are increasing: 67%.
The country with the best evolution in terms of the recovery of tourism activity has been Jamaica: it has exceeded by 66% the roomnights it had in September/2019. In the whole of the area in which our clients operate (Jamaica itself, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba), a good evolution of bookings is expected for the end of the year, as the levels are similar to the current ones and 23% of what is currently booked is expected to be for entries between 30 and 90 days later.
In this period (last quarter of the year), the length of stay is longer, with stays of more than 8 nights increasing. The majority, however, is 5 to 7 nights. Roomnights now account for 89% of those registered in 2019.
The specialised publication Hosteltur has included this report, incorporating other Dingus DataHotel indicators which you can access by clicking here.
*Dingus DataHotel analyses booking sales and search trends across more than 1,300 connected hotels in 25 countries and 52 destinations, leveraging the more than 1.5 billion monthly product search requests we receive. Dingus’ portfolio of sales channels currently exceeds 500 connectivities with tour operators of different types around the world.
Cristina Torres. Corporate communication and media relations
cristina.torres@hittgroup.es
