The quite successful season of 2023 did not help the hoteliers of the popular country to “patch” the post-COVID wounds: in the country popular with tourists, the owners began to sell their hotels en masse. It is about Spain. According to the Spanish press, citing research by real estate portal Idealista, the number of hotels for sale in Spain has risen sharply to 1,346.
To understand the scale of the figure, the researchers specify that this figure is three times higher than the figure for 2021. They also add that the number of hotels listed for sale as of the end of August this year has increased by 27% compared to 2022.
What is interesting is that this is happening during a very successful season. As Eurostat assures, the tourism sector of the EU, which was negatively affected by the epidemic, recovered this year and even exceeded the “prior year” results. In the first half of this year, the number of accommodation places in tourist facilities of EU countries reached the highest level for the first half of the last 10 years. If in 6 months of 2019, the number of overnight stays was 1.182 billion, then in 2023 it reached 1.193 billion, adding 11 million to the “pre-pandemic” indicators.
However, this did not save Spanish hotels. In mid-summer and at the end of August, hotels were sold in all Spanish provinces. Moreover, the majority of hotels for sale were located in coastal areas. As the researchers add, the main reason why investors and operators are putting hotels up for sale, despite a completely successful year for tourism, is the debts accrued for “pandemic closures”.
Also, experts emphasize that as a result of this, the profitable tourism business, while remaining in Spain, goes into the wrong hands. Spanish hotels are actively buying investment funds from America, Qatar, and other countries.