The hoteliers on the Costa del Sol predict a good tourist season for next year 2022, although they handle forecasts based on caution due to the evolution of Covid-19 and the impositions of the issuing countries regarding mobility.
This has been revealed by several managers of luxury hotels in Marbella and Estepona in a conference held at the Les Roches high school hotel management school, which has been directed by its director, Carlos Díez de la Lastra.
The directors of the five-star Grand Luxury Los Monteros and Anantara Villa Padierna, Fernando Al-Farkh and Jorga Manzur; of the five stars Don Carlos and Ikos resort, Sandra Caballé and Carlos Nieto, and the director of the four-star El Fuerte and president of Aehcos, José Luque.
During the event, various aspects of the hotel sector were addressed, such as the forecasts for next year, the type of current client, the search for talent or the use of new technologies, where all the speakers have agreed to express his optimism for the next season.
Thus, Fernando Al-Farkh has stated that the keys for the foreseeable recovery to materialize revolve around the fact that “the sending and receiving countries, especially the European ones, agree on the validity of vaccination certificates, of the vaccines that are supplied in the countries and regarding the necessary requirements to move from one country to another ”. Regarding this last aspect, he has valued that “there is a lot of disparity and it is necessary to agree so that a free movement can be reactivated among people”.
For next year, he has indicated that the outlook “is good” based on “the recovery we have had in recent months“, Although it has qualified the existence of”uncertainties ”as the sector depends on the evolution of the pandemic in the different countries. In this sense, he recalled that in the main issuer of tourists to the Costa del Sol, such as the United Kingdom, “infections are increasing”, which generates some uncertainty.
The director of Anantara Villa Padierna, Jorge Manzur, has indicated that “forecasts for 2022 are good with reservations”And although there are doubts regarding the months of January and February due to the absence of the group segment, he has been convinced that starting in March, tourism “is going to rebound”.
This assessment is based on “the upturn in European tourism that we have experienced this year “ and “in the absence of the English at the beginning of the summer we were full of French, German, Swiss and especially Spanish ”.
For her part, Sandra Caballé has estimated that for 2022 there are “very good forecast compared to what we were expecting previously ”, while emphasizing that“ this year has been very good, with which we hope to return to at least 2019 levels, touch them, and even exceed them ”.
The The result of the 2021 season is, according to the hotel company, which promises a good year 2022, since “all the expectations we had have been exceeded and that makes us believe in Marbella as a destination, and at the same time makes us be there and believe that tourism here is going to recover more quickly ”.
The director of Ikos resort, Carlos Nieto, foresees “a relatively good season for 2022”, highlighting that “tourism still continues to want to travel and where there is a very early booking and travel forecast ”.
Therefore, it has valued despite the fact that experts have predicted a recovery by 2023, that this “Be next year if the pandemic respects us and we have a relatively normal winter ”.