Cataluña flight bookings down 22% following political unrest in Spain

INTERNATIONAL flight reservations  for the Cataluña region have dropped by more than 20% following political unrest.

According to data from ForwardKeys, international air bookings for the Spanish region fell by 22% since the beginning of October compared to the same period last year.

Chief executive of ForwardKeys Olivier Jager, said, “Domestic political unrest almost always deters visitors and that is what we are seeing now – a 22% collapse in international flight bookings for Cataluña.

“This will also have a knock-on to other parts of Spain because many visitors arriving in Catalonia will travel around the country.

“If the political crisis worsens, I fear we will see a further decline in bookings. This trend will be of great concern because travel and tourism represents such a large proportion of the Spanish economy, over 14% of GDP.”

ForwardKeys analyses more than 17million flight booking transactions a day, drawing data from all the major global air reservation systems and selected airlines and tour operators. The company is headquartered in Valencia, Spain.