From 150 to 300 were the daily bookings from the UK market registered by Dingus hotels in the Balearic Islands during the month of June, a range that on the 25th was pulverised and multiplied by 18. The inclusion of the archipelago in the UK’s green zone for travel caused that, hours later, the British went from looking at the Covid traffic light to making 2,721 bookings/day. In the Dingus DataHotel** indicators we see that those booked within the next 30 days are predominantly for stays of more than 5 nights. Only 4.3% are for stays of less than 30 days.
Meanwhile sales in the German market are down by 35% compared to the previous days. They are mostly for medium-term bookings: from 30 days onwards. We believe that now that travel restrictions in the EU are more stable, Germans are more organised and are therefore booking in the medium term.
Search trends in June maintain May’s top destinations in Spain
Majorca (41.1%) and Tenerife, at a considerable distance (10.1%), were the main focus of interest in June searches, although Salou in Tarragona continues to stand out by area (7.7%), followed by Palmanova in Majorca (5.2%) and Costa Adeje on the island of Tenerife (4.2%). What has changed with the arrival of the high season is the behaviour of travellers, and we are seeing an increase in searches of a different type to the one that has been the dominant trend up to now: as a couple. Stays are now for more than five nights, and requests for booking windows between 31 and 90 days are on the rise, so that 63 out of every hundred searches for bookings have been for the months of July and August. There is also no change in the category of the most sought-after hotel in Spain, which is a four-star hotel in almost 72% of cases.
According to one of the main sales channels integrated with Dingus, the domestic market has topped the searches, followed by other European countries where mobility is easier than for non-EU. The top five tourists looking for hotels in our portfolio, then, are Spanish, German, Irish, French and Italian.
What triumphs, and can be decisive in converting the enquiry into a booking, is the flexibility in terms and conditions that most customers are still looking for in case they must (or want to) alter their travel plans. More than 84% were interested in fares with free cancellation.
Stability in search trends in the Caribbean
Bávaro, with 34.7% of searches, and Riviera Maya South, with 20.8%, are the Caribbean destinations that have generated most interest in June, a very similar behaviour to that of May. Searches for holidays for couples have also continued to predominate, with a medium-term anticipation (33% for 31-90 days and 24.9% for entries within 3 to 6 months) and a duration of less than four nights in almost 42% of cases. However, searches for stays between 5 and 7 nights are on the rise (39.2%).
In terms of the hotel chosen, there is a clear difference in the type of establishment between the Spanish segment and the Caribbean, where the high category resort model abounds. In June, 88.6% of searches focused on 5-star hotels. Where there is more similarity is in the option of no-cost cancellable rates: as in Spain, the majority of tourists interested in the Caribbean area (79.4%) were looking for them.
Finally, we again see that searches in markets close to the hotel’s location predominate, given the restrictions still in place from countries on another continent, followed by the United States. The top four travellers interested in Dingus-connected hotels in the Caribbean are Jamaicans, Dominicans, Mexicans and Americans. In fifth position, already thinking about the moment of being able to cross the Atlantic without problems, Spanish tourists.
**Dingus DataHotel analyses booking sales and search trends across more than 1,200 connected hotels in 25 countries and 52 destinations, leveraging the more than 1 billion monthly product search requests we receive. Dingus’ portfolio of sales channels currently exceeds 500 connectivities with different types of tour operators around the world.
Cristina Torres. Comunicación y Relaciones con los Medios
