The State Meteorological Agency in the Valencian Community warned last Saturday that, in addition to the extreme heat that is being recorded these days, violent phenomena could occur with very strong gusts of wind or blowouts such as those on Friday morning, which they caused, for example, the accident at the Medusa Festival in Cullera.
That message permeated the public and the Alicante restaurant, for example, noticed the effect: the night weakened as it had not done in the rest of the summer. “It was a very bad Saturday, people did not go out, so much alarm was created that there was a general puncture. I imagine that after what happened in Valencia, people got scared because we had ten cancellations because of that. There was too much alarm”, laments the president of the Alicante Restaurant Association (ARA), César Anca.
For his part, the president of the Valencia Hospitality Business Federation (FEHV), Manuel Espinar, explains that the climatic episode caused “people to take refuge in hotels and expectations were not met” on Saturday night.
Also Lalo Díez, president of the Leisure and Hospitality Business Coordinator of the Valencian Community, explains that reservations for Saturday were canceled in the towns where the forecast indicated the risk of a climatic blowout. "This, which has been very punctual, is nothing more than a demonstration of the importance of coordination between public administrations, emergency communication services and having more advanced prediction systems that allow us to be prepared," he adds.
In any case, all point out that this does not tarnish the good performance of the hotel sector during this summer. Together with the hotelier, who already warned last week that this would be a long weekend in August with a "technical crowd", the tourism sector is satisfied with the season.
César Anca, from Alicante, acknowledges that the season is going well, even with fewer diners at midday, mainly due to the heat, and with night tickets that allow us to speak of normality, finally, in the sector. Espinar supports the thesis: "It is noticeable at noon, because people avoid the heat in all those establishments outside the coast and in the city it is noticeable, but the nights go well, which is when we have 90% of the turnover", explains the also Vice President of Hospitality in Spain.
The Valencia Hospitality Business Federation will begin to survey its associates starting this week, which means a fortnight change and, therefore, a greater number of tourist arrivals and departures.
"We already know that some stores are at 2019 figures, but profitability is the problem, 10.8% inflation weighs us down a lot, especially when elasticity was already at the limit," explains Espinar.
The businessman assures that the client this year is spending between 5 and 10 euros less on each average ticket, because although he has not given up on vacations, he does look more at his pocket: how and how much he spends is important. “There is a lot of caution because the expectations for the fall and winter are catastrophic, and then people go back. The handbrake is noticeable”, he concludes.
