According to the industry association Hosbec, Spain’s Mediterranean region has received more reservations from UK holidaymakers this week than in the ‘history of tourism’

The tourism sector in Spain’s Valencia region is starting to see the first signs of recovery after being devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Spanish news agency EFE, the president of the Valencian Hotel Association (Hosbec), Toni Mayor, said on Wednesday that hotels in the Mediterranean region had received more bookings this week from British holidaymakers than “in the history of tourism.” According to Mayor, Britons have made reservations “on a massive scale” to secure accommodation over summer, explaining that people were “eager to get their revenge” on the coronavirus, and that there was “no better way to do this than going on vacation.”

The spike in bookings comes after the UK government announced on Monday a roadmap to ease lockdown restrictions in England. According to Mayor, following the news, hotels in Valencia received a “massive” number of bookings from May 17, when restrictions on international leisure travel are set to be lifted. The British government, however, will meet on March 12 to decide whether this roadmap should be pushed forward or back, depending on the epidemiological situation in the country. The United Kingdom is the largest source country of foreign visitors to Benidorm, which is one of Valencia’s most popular tourist destinations. It is also the largest market for the entire Spanish tourism sector, which received 18 million UK visitors in 2019.