On the occasion of World Tourism Day, which has been celebrated on September 27 since 1980, many reflections can be made. Especially in the current situation of a sector that, depending on the mobility of people, that is, their capacity to travel, whether international, national, regional or even locally speaking, has seen, overnight, , due to a pandemic, its profitability was greatly damaged, facing an unprecedented crisis at a global level.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has estimated that in 2020, 197 million jobs will be lost in the sector. The drop in international travel will be around 70% for this pandemic year. Hotels, homes, apartments, restaurants, airlines, cruises, trains, buses, tour operators, travel agencies, have seen their income reduced very considerably, even questioning their viability or taking them into bankruptcy.
Europe is the main tourist destination in the world with 22.6 million people working in the sector. In this sense, the pandemic has posed a very complex situation for European Union countries, such as France, Italy, Greece or Spain, in which tourism has an important weight in their economies.
“THEY ARE TIMES OF EFFORT, OF SACRIFICE, OF IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY.”
In the specific case of Spain, a leading country in tourism, the situation and prospects are very serious, taking into account the importance of tourism in its GDP, as well as its special significance in certain regions, such as Andalusia and, obviously, in Seville.
This has posed a host of sudden challenges, which are testing the capacity for adaptation and flexibility of both public administrations and companies. In our case, the Sevillian company VALCAMBRE, we have gone from managing 70% of reservations with more than 10 days in advance, which allowed planning of the activity, to almost 78% being made with less than 10 days in advance. and 50% in just 3 days. That is to say, the tourist who has come to us has made his travel decisions in a context of almost improvisation in his desire to travel.
Likewise, we have had to adapt quickly to the new type of clientele. While in 2019 82% of our guests came from outside Spain, from the most diverse countries and continents, in 2020, only 33% of them come from outside our borders and the vast majority of these are European.
Finally, activity, in terms of reservations, has been reduced, only in the months of August and September, by 85% compared to the same period last year.
Day by day, without dramatizing the present, but without underestimating the future, we are facing an unexpected situation for our company, which not even the best world guru would have predicted seven months ago. Now, our great family and business commitment, as well as our determined commitment to Seville, a city to which we want to contribute the best of ourselves so that it progresses in well-being and offers opportunities to all of us who live in it, are the best energy for face the storm.
These are times of effort, of sacrifice, of imagination, of creativity, of not looking at the clock to achieve goals, of burning the fat that hinders the flexibility necessary for changes, of passion for what you do. We only ask that the situation in which Spain is diluted into a health, economic, social and, what is even more serious, institutional crisis, does not make it more difficult for us to continue taking risks, but without sufficient stability to generate confidence necessary to invest.
