Analysis of hotel bookings in the Spanish and English markets after the two country’s football teams were knocked out of the World Cup shows a spike in demand.
UK bookings surged by 75% in the week after England’s exit, while bookings in Spain jumped by 54%.
Analysis by JacTravel looked at hotel bookings made by its five largest clients in each market in the week before and the week after each national side was eliminated from the tournament in Brazil.
The company believes its booking figures are indicative of what is happening throughout the industry as it provides accommodation on a wholesale basis to holiday retailers such as Onhotels.com in the UK and Destinia in Spain.
JacTravel chief executive Terry Williamson said: “This is a phenomenon we have seen for every World Cup I can remember. Holidaymakers come into the market when their team is knocked out and our numbers clearly show that happening.”
Onhotels.com chief executive Rob Turner said: “We’ve certainly noted a silver lining to England’s poor World Cup and early exit. Bookings leapt forward 20% from June 19, with Spanish resorts being the most obvious beneficiary. The summer holiday season is definitely underway.”
Destinia’s commercial director Mónica Prieto said: “On June 26, four days after the Spanish team got disqualified from the World Cup, flight sales jumped by 40% from the competition days. The jump in hotel sales came during the next few days.
“There are many factors that could explain these good figures, like, for example, the beginning of the high season, but we also believe that Spain’s early exit from the tournament might have influenced some travellers’ booking behaviour.
“The fact is that 2014 sales are better overall than last year’s.”