Pent-up local demand buoys Spanish hotel bookings


FILE PHOTO: A person teaches surfing to children at Barceloneta beach, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Barcelona, Spain April 3, 2021. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo

MADRID (Reuters) - Hotel bookings in Spain have boomed since a national state of emergency and ban on leisure travel expired last week, unleashing pent-up local demand and fuelling optimism within the COVID-battered sector despite a shortage of foreign visitors.

Reservations reached over 70% of pre-pandemic levels in the days after the emergency decree ended, according to hospitality data provider SiteMinder. Global hotel bookings, by contrast, are at around half 2019's levels.

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