The tourism sector clings to Easter: "People want to go out and we want to work"

BarcelonaAfter more than a year of pandemic and restrictions, the tourist sector arrives at Easter with forecasts that go from moderate optimism to resignation. Hospitality businesses in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona - which this week will mainly receive the exodus of visitors from Barcelona and the metropolitan area - are starting the season with almost full bookings in open-air establishments such as campsites, but with the large hotels on the coast still only half-booked.

"The mountain and inland will be at 100%", explained the spokesman of the Hospitality Industry of the Girona Region Federation, Antoni Escudero, in a conversation organized by the ARA. Entrepreneurs are not so optimistic about the occupation in coastal hotels: Escudero pointed out that it is not profitable to open many of the larger establishments just for Easter and, therefore, they will not yet notice the resumption of tourist activity.

Tarragona forecasts are similar to those of the counties of Girona. According to the spokesman of the Hospitality Industry and Tourism Federation of Tarragona, Xavier Guardià, the big hotels of the coast will reopen these days with a much slower pace than usual and an occupation of between 15% and 20%. "The campsites will be open at 80%", he added. In a "normal" Easter, Guardià recalled, Tarragona has a "90% of Catalan customers and the rest of the state". The demarcation, therefore, will benefit from the lifting of the municipal lockdown but will be left without major markets such as Aragon, Navarra and La Rioja.

In Lleida, the vacuum of foreign tourists will not be so evident either. "We do not depend on an aircraft carrier or an ocean liner", admitted the president of the hotel federation of the demarcation, Josep Castellarnau. Although not all hotels in the province will be open, businessmen are "very happy" with the prospects of occupation of local tourists. "People want to go out and we want to work", he said.

Despite the respite of Easter, the tourism sector believes that it still suffers from lack of "empathy" of the administrations. "If there is no summer, no one will be able to stand it", said Guardià. Escudero argued that the industry should be "pampered" with investment, rather than "stigmatised". In this sense, he assured that 15% of Girona's tourism businesses will no longer be open this summer. "The normal user may not see these closures because the good businesses will buy them. The vulture funds are waiting to see which hotels fall, this will be the drama of the families of the hotel industry", Castellarnau said.