Latest / STR Unpacked / The Eclipse Paid Out
Transcript
- Ben: Morning, welcome to your short-term rental bulletin on the 14th of August. So you may have noticed this week there was an eclipse. Two minutes of darkness. But what does actually two minutes of darkness work out in the numbers? So 347 million euros, that is how much income we exp we saw on Wednesday due to the eclipse. So to dive into it a little bit on Wednesday, the first total solar eclipse on the mainland Europe since 1999. Tracked across northern Spain, and the government's economy ministry put the expected income at just over 446,000 extra visitors and €347 million boost, with hotel bookings for the week up nearly 18% on last August and airline seats up nearly 8%. Now the path data backs it up. Armeedas reports reported bookings up nearly 90% in Santander, Estorias and Bilbao. On booking.com, international searches for Soria, a town most tourists never even Googled, jumped 522%, and Lyon 356. Campsites along the path were completely full, and motorhome fleets were booked out months in advance, understandably. Early trade reporting since Wendy points to occupancy across the path up 16%, with average rates up around 36%. And obviously, this wasn't just Spain. Iceland is the other Dunester. And obviously, it wasn't just Spain. We saw it in Iceland, the other destination for totality. And it is the same effect. Trade reports put hotel occupancy along its path roughly 80% against 61% last year. Interestingly, the baseline is a record too. On Wednesday, Arena confirmed Spanish airports handled 34.4 million passengers in July, an all time monthly record up 5% and more than 190 million so far this year. Madrid alone moved 6.5 million. Parma 4.7. Now that was a scheduled two-minute demand spike visible years in advance. And operators who repriced early captured rate rises ordinary weeks just simply can't deliver. Now the next one is already in the diary, 2nd of August 2027, straight across southern Spain. So demand spikes are announced years in advance, and the only question really is whether your calendar is reflecting that. So that's your Friday bulletin. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next week.