Since 2018, Jordi Imbert and his partner, residents of Calella (Maresme), have a double date during the low season with the Santa Marta hotel in Lloret de Mar. In October, they celebrate that they got married years ago, and in November, his birthday. "We simply come to relax, go down to the beach, to the spa... The Costa Brava can also be enjoyed in winter; in the summer there are queues and traffic everywhere, it's another contrast", he explains. Your visit will be short. One night, after all, two.
They are the other tourists. Those who choose to enjoy the destination with warmth. An obviously minority group, but which is increasing, according to data provided by the Girona-Costa Brava Tourism Board. In 2022, 25% of the 3.6 million travelers who stayed in hotels on the Costa Brava opted for the coldest months of the year. There were about 925,000 that generated about two million overnight stays. A number that will be exceeded this year. Between January, February, March and October, the hotels on the coast of Girona received 20% more visitors than the same period of the previous year. There are still few – around 20% – who dare to open in low season due to the high cost involved, but those who do open are guaranteed occupations that range between 20% and full in depending on the area and the day of the week.
The growth of winter tourism in hotels on the Costa Brava is attributable to different factors, as explained by the president of the Tourism Board, Miquel Noguer. Among other reasons, an increasingly benevolent climate, more activity at Girona airport - since November, flights to more destinations than last year - and the efforts to deseasonalize this destination with cultural, sports and gastronomic activities.
If we focus on Lloret de Mar, the Catalan municipality with the most hotel places in Catalonia after Barcelona (29,000 distributed among 120 hotels), the occupations they have in the low season have far exceeded those registered a year ago. The 59 hotel establishments that were open there in October closed with an average occupancy of 65% and 70% at the weekend, ten percentage points more than a year ago, according to data from Lloret Turisme. In November there are barely 15 accommodations that maintain activity, but the sector predicts that they will be full for the Puríssima bridge, a period that concentrates a good number of sporting events and conferences.
The occupations are very variable during the week. "We can go from zero to a hundred in 24 hours," explains Andrea Noguera, director of the Santa Marta hotel. This five-star, 76-room family hotel had about fifteen rooms booked yesterday. A couple of days ago there were almost thirty, a figure that doubles if congressmen are staying there. Business convention and congress tourism, which Lloret has fully recovered after the pandemic, is one of the groups that have consolidated the most in the low season in this tourist square.
The other big driver outside the summer season is sports tourism. In 2022, it received more than 65,000 people linked to this tourism profile, among athletes and companions, a figure that is expected to exceed this year. The prospects are also good for the Christmas holidays, with the celebration of the Spanish Championship of Regional Handball Selections, which will bring more than 4,000 athletes to January.
"If we opened more hotels, they would also fill up", confirms the manager of Lloret de Turisme, Elizabeth Keegan. "Seven or eight years ago we had reached the figure of 10,000 active hotel places in winter, twice as many as now". But different factors have contributed to the decline: inflation, rising energy costs, personnel management and Imserso tourism, which is increasingly less profitable for hoteliers. "Despite the fact that the demand is there, opening now in winter is more complicated than ever", says Keegan.
On the Alt Empordà coast, which depends heavily on French tourism, employment is around 15 or 20%. " November is perhaps the slackest month. The competition of the Christmas markets, a very popular and rooted tradition in France, takes some of this tourism away from us", acknowledges Miquel Gotanegra, president of the Alt Empordà Hospitality Association. Despite these data, he says that it is worth extending the season as much as possible to "retain talent". "There is a part of the year that costs us money to be open, but it pays for us. If I offer work only four months a year, I will hardly find qualified staff; extending the season allows us to offer a higher quality work structure", admits Gotanegra, general manager of the Spa Terraza hotel, with 81 rooms, and of the boutique hotel 1935, both in Roses. Andrea Noguera, from Santa Marta, located on Santa Cristina beach, in Lloret de Mar, is speaking in the same vein. "The fixed expenditure of the farm is very large, but maintaining it with the hotel open is less lost than with the hotel closed", he explains. Small or family hotels have it easier than large ones, for whom keeping the infrastructure running is much more complicated.
In the Costa Brava Center group, French and Catalan tourism are also nurtured during these dates. They are mostly middle-aged tourists or couples. "It is a group that, in addition, spends much more than in the summer", explains the manager of the Costa Brava Center group, Judit Lloberol, who figures that 20% of the group's establishments are open, with average occupations of 40% or 50%. Many, such as the La Terrassa hotel in Platja d'Aro, open these dates only at weekends. "On the night from Friday to Saturday we are at 50%, and on Saturday, we fill up", explains Carles Ordiales, the director. Platja d'Aro, with its powerful commercial activity (shops are open 365 days a year), leisure and nightlife has become an important claim these days, as the president of the hoteliers, Lluís Moliné, emphasizes.
