Brits are back on Alicante province’s Costa Blanca

BRITISH tourists currently account for 50 per cent of those visiting the Costa Blanca.

This good news for local businesses coincided with the UK government’s decision to lift all of its remaining travel restrictions, reopening the door to pre-pandemic occupancy figures.

More flights are arriving from UK airports each day, with 185 scheduled for March 18, 19 and 20 and increasing to 207 over the weekend of March 25, 26 and 27 .

If tourism figures are looking good as spring begins, they promise to be better still during Alicante-Elche airport’s high season, which begins in April and finishes in late October.

Airlines have told airport operator Aena that they foresee a total of 12.3 million passengers during this period, 4 per cent more than the record-breaking summer of 2019.

National tourism is expected to increase by 28 per cent to 1.7 million passengers, while the number of international visitors will rise to 10.6 million, a 2 per cent increase.

Experts quoted in the Spanish media had already predicted that tourism’s recovery would be v-shaped, nosediving rapidly but soaring back with equal rapidity.

The first two weeks of March have already proved them right, with Alicante province’s hotel bookings rising by 200 per cent during this time, the same experts said.