29th March 2024
Sitges
Sitges News

Sitges 2021 tourism figures show a strong comeback for the sector

The Sitges Town Council’s department of tourism recently presented the visitor figures for this summer during a day of ‘Tourism Intelligence’, using various methods to help analyse the profile of tourists visiting the town. The overall results show a strong recovery for the sector and positive predictions for next year.

The study, carried out from towards the end of June until the end of September, showed that Sitges as a destination also obtained an overall positive assessment by visitors of 8.6 out of 10.

Mayor of Sitges Aurora Carbonell opened the ‘Tourism Intelligence’ day by highlighting the tourist department’s work in making Sitges ‘a sustainable and competitive destination’ and being able ‘to make decisions based on data and information, and not through intuition’. She said that the ‘data is very relevant, as it provides us with basic information both from the tourist and visitor, and even of the resident’.

Based on the data collated, the council’s tourism department is able to prioritise necessary actions and plan ahead with more precise promotion campaigns, whilst at the same time evaluating actions carried out previously, making corrections where required, as well as providing a service for local tourism businesses and their own strategies.

The local councillor for tourism, Luis Miguel García, said: ‘All the data collated helps us to make our promotion and service strategy for 2022 much more effective. Our aim is to provide a maximum service and strive to always improve the quality of the destination. We’re not looking for volume, but effectiveness; to find the best tourist and visitor spending more at the destination and consuming less resources. This helps the co-existence between resident and tourist to be more balanced because we should not forget that Sitgetans are the priority for our Town Council.’

The data showed that the figures are increasingly resembling those of 2019, pre-pandemic, and not like 2020, with the tourism sector therefore being affected less and less by Covid-19. A key figure is that 70.5% of the total number of tourists this summer came from the rest of Catalonia and Spain, whilst in 2019 the equivalent figure was only 24%.

However, 35.6% of overnight stays were generated by international tourists, underlining the fact that they stay for longer periods than national visitors. The data also showed that San Juan is a key date for the arrival of tourists, following the trend of the last three years. The day of the highest arrival of tourists was 23 June, with 16,349 people.

Among the data presented during the day, it was also emphasised that Sitges as a destination obtained an overall assessment of visitor satisfaction of 8.6 out of 10. Among the aspects with lower valuation (5.2) are the availability of parking, although the offer of public transport scored 7.9.

As for the profile of visitors, 44.3% of tourists are between 35 and 54 years old. Regarding the volume of spending for nationalities, international tourist represents 29.1%, while the national visitors, 70.9% – also due to the fact that national visitors were again the majority during the Covid restrictions still affecting international travel during 2021.

The most sought after information at the tourist website (www.sitgesanytime.com) was security and Covid, as well as festivals, beaches and events. Visits to tourist information offices also increased in 2021 by 142% compared to 2020.

Sitges
Sitges (Jose Cortes / Unsplash)

Click here to follow Sitges in English on Facebook, as well as Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to return to Sitges in English home page. Click here for our full archive of Sitges News reports.

Click here to get your business or services listed on our DIRECTORY.

 

Booking.com

Recent Posts

Sitges prepares for a good influx of visitors over Easter

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

Vinyet, Terramar residents denounce recurring thefts of homes and vehicles

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

A safe path to Agnès School in Sitges is a step closer

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

Market price of some flats in Sitges is more than double the new rental index

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

Sitges beach services start on 23 March and will continue for seven months

News Desk

Local council plants over a hundred trees and plants in public spaces

News Desk - L'Eco de Sitges

Leave a Comment