Image via Shutterstock
Growth of 6.3% in bookings for international departures from Spain is being seen in the first quarter of 2015.
The big winners are the Middle East and Latin America. Bookings to the UAE are 41% up on last year, thanks to increased flight connectivity between Dubai and Spain, as well as various leisure and business events in the Gulf region this month.
The figures for Spanish outbound travel come from Forward Keys, which monitors future travel patterns by analysing around 70 million booking transactions a day.
Bookings for Chile and Argentina also show a substantial increase compared to last year, up by 23.8% and 17.9% respectively, following a new code-share agreement between Iberia and the Latin American carrier TAM that makes it easier for Spanish travellers to go to South America.
The promising start to 2015 follows a recovery last year. Overall departure from Spain grew 3.2% in 2014, a rebound from the 2012 economic crisis, when annual departures fell 6.2%.
Countries gaining more Spanish visitors were Turkey up 14%, the US up 11%, Portugal up 9%, Germany up 7% and the UK up 5%.
Forward Keys co-founder and CEO Olivier Jager said: “We are seeing highly encouraging booking trends. Spanish outbound bookings for travel in February are up by 10.7% and bookings for March are currently up by 46.5% compared to the equivalent time last year.
“This tells us that travellers are booking earlier and that there will likely be a bigger volume of departures in the first quarter of 2015. Whichever way you see it, these numbers are grounds for optimism.”