Tourism numbers continue to fall in province

INE – the government number crunchers – have released their monthly tourism report for Almería. 85.115 tourists stayed in the province during March – 32,000 less than March 2007, 10,000 less than just two years ago. (source: Ideal)

What’s worse, as tourism figures pointed out, is that Easter, typically a strong period, fell during the end of this month.

Interestingly enough, out of these figures, 60.857 visitors were Spanish, and just 11.944 foriegn.

Actually, I’ve just been looking at the holiday figures for Almería, broken down into the four main holiday areas (Albox, for some reason, does not appear). Mojácar, for example, has had a better April than last year, but is still 50% down on 2006 figures. But the surprising thing is the difference between Spanish and foreign travellers for some area – in Roquetas del Mar, for example, just 1 in 10 of every tourist is a non-Spanish national. Hmm.

All months April	Individual travellers
	Spanish nationals
	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
04013-Almería	20466	16653	18779	18268	14955	15361
04064-Mojácar	10887	13538	12993	20428	24648	9945
04066-Níjar	2885	2980	2177	4384	3393	2554
04079-Roquetas De Mar	26527	27048	20068	32657	38903	29258


	Individual travellers
	Foriegn nationals
	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
04013-Almería	4429	3478	4650	3807	2740	2492
04064-Mojácar	2519	1979	3190	2165	5891	5254
04066-Níjar	850	676	874	730	717	891
04079-Roquetas De Mar	2557	4875	12800	13582	7918	5419

Hmm. Let’s graph this, for easy reading:

Well, Níjar is steady, but Roquetas seems to have seen the boom years come and gone – it’s now staying alive by being the Andalucian resort of choice for OAP’s on IMSERSO trips. 13 hotels affiliated to this scheme, last time I looked. Full board for 100€ a week? I’ll have some of that thank you – eh, Maria, look at all these guiri bars, I’ll stay well away from them, thank you.