Since 2018, Jordi Imbert and his partner, residents of Calella (Maresme), have had a double date in the low season with the Santa Marta hotel in Lloret de Mar. In October they celebrate that they said I do years ago and in November, their birthday of the.
“We simply come to relax, we go down to the beach, we go to the spa… The Costa Brava can also be enjoyed in winter; In summer there are queues and traffic everywhere, it is another contrast,” he explains. Yours will be a short visit. One night, at most two.
They are the other tourists. Those who choose to enjoy the destination with shelter. An obviously minority group but one that is increasing, according to data provided by the Girona-Costa Brava Tourist Board.
In 2022, 25% of the 3.6 million travelers who stayed in hotels opted for the coldest months of the year. There were about 925,000 that generated about 2 million overnight stays. A figure that will be exceeded this year.
Between January, February, March and October, the hotels on the Girona coast have received 20% more visitors than in the same period of the previous year. There are still few – around 20% – who dare to open in the low season due to the high cost involved, but those who do are guaranteed occupancy that ranges between 20% and full depending on the area and the weekday.
The growth of winter tourism in hotels on the Costa Brava is attributable to several factors, according to the president of the Patronat de Turisme, Miquel Noguer. Among other reasons, an increasingly benevolent climate, greater activity at the Girona airport – there are flights to more destinations than last winter – and efforts to deseasonalize the destination with cultural, sports or gastronomic activities.
Focusing on Lloret de Mar, the Catalan municipality with the most hotel beds in Catalonia after Barcelona (29,000 distributed among 120 hotels), the occupancy rates they are experiencing in the low season have far exceeded those registered a year ago.
The 59 hotel establishments open in October closed with an average occupancy of 65% and 70% on the weekend, ten percentage points more than a year ago. This November there are only 15 accommodations that maintain activity, but the sector predicts that they will be full during the Purísima long weekend, a period that concentrates a good number of sporting and congressional events.
“Occupancy is very variable during the week. We can go from 0 to 100 in 24 hours,” explains Andrea Noguera, director of the Santa Marta hotel. This five-star family hotel with 76 rooms yesterday had only fifteen rooms reserved.
A couple of days ago there were almost thirty, a figure that doubles if congressmen stay there. Tourism for business conventions and conferences, which Lloret has fully recovered after the pandemic, is one of the groups that has established itself in the low season in this tourist plaza.
The other big driver outside the summer season is sports tourism. In 2022 it received more than 65,000 people linked to this tourism profile, including athletes and companions, a figure that is expected to exceed this year. The prospects are also good during the Christmas holidays with the celebration of the Spanish Regional Handball Team Championship, which will bring more than 4,000 athletes in January.
“If we opened more hotels, they would also be full,” confirms the manager of Lloret de Turisme, Elizabeth Keegan. “Seven or eight years ago we had reached the figure of 10,000 active hotel beds in winter, double what we have now.”
But several factors have contributed to this decline: inflation, increased energy costs, personnel management and Imserso tourism, which is increasingly less attractive for hoteliers. “Although the demand is there, opening now in winter is more difficult than ever,” says Keegan.
On the Alt Empordà coast, highly dependent on French tourism, occupancy is around 15 or 20%. “November may be the weakest month. The competition from the Christmas markets, a very popular and deep-rooted tradition in France, takes away a part of this tourism,” acknowledges Miquel Gotanegra,
Despite these data, he says that it is worth extending the season as much as possible to “retain talent.” In his case, he opens nine months a year, from mid-March to the end of the year. “There is a part of the year that costs us money to be open, but it makes up for it. If I offer work only four months a year, I will hardly find qualified personnel; Extending the season allows us to offer a higher quality work structure,” admits Gotanegra, director of the Spa Terraza hotel, with 81 rooms, and the 1935 boutique hotel, both in Roses.
Andrea Noguera, from Santa Marta, located in front of Santa Cristina beach, in Lloret, is positioned along the same lines. “The fixed expense of the property is very large, but maintaining it with the hotel open means less loss than with the hotel closed,” he explains. Small or family hotels have it easier than large ones for whom keeping the infrastructure running is much more complicated.
The Costa Brava Center also draws on French and Catalan tourism during these dates. Mostly middle-aged tourists and couples. “It is a group that also spends much more than in the summer,” explains the manager of the Costa Brava Center group, Judit Lloberol, who estimates that 20% of the group’s establishments are open, with average occupancy of 40 or 50%.
Many, like the La Terrassa hotel in Platja d’Aro, open only on weekends. “On the night from Friday to Saturday we are at 50% and on Saturday, we are full,” explains Carles Ordiales, its director. Platja d’Aro, with a powerful commercial activity (its shops are open 365 days a year) and leisure, has become an important attraction during these dates, according to the president of the hoteliers, Lluís Moliné.
