Where are the tourists?

According to news reports, Spain's tourist arrivals are sliding fast:

- In year-to-April, foreign tourist arrivals fell 12 % yoy.

- Arrivals at the Costa Blanca (especially popular among depreciation-hit British tourists) are down 22 %.

This link provides details for the various Spanish airports and for different source countries (for some reason, arrivals from the US are up 6 %, whereas arrivals from pretty much anywhere else are down).

To fill the empty planes from the Spanish mainland to the Canary Islands, local residents now receive a 30 % ticket price subsidy, says this report.

Companies in the tourism sector are also feeling the pain:

- NH Hoteles saw Q1 room revenues drop 16 % yoy, and suffered a 48 m € loss for the quarter.

- Iberia also saw revenues drop 16 %, and lost 93 m €.

Meanwhile, Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia recorded strong growth in tourist arrivals due to their weak currencies. So apparently, people aren't staying home. They simply choose to go elsewhere...