Madrid weekend breaks becoming more affordable?

Is your romantic Madrid weekend break about to become substantially cheaper? Following on from our earlier piece on the Spain tourism: effects of the financial crisis its only logical that today we take things one step closer and explain how visiting Madrid has become cheaper for one class of tourists and how they’ve been enjoying some rather unexpected benefits.

The weekend break becomes cheap?

Figures from the UK airports authority for July 2009 (figures) how that the number of passengers in the peak summer season is down from 2008. If one adds into the equation that in 2008 most airline executives were thinking of how to add capacity for 2009 it quickly becomes apparent that there are a considerable number of seats that are not being sold on each flight.

Whilst those travelers visiting Madrid from the USA will typically reserve their vacation months in advance the traveler visiting Madrid from UK shores can leave things that bit later. If the visit is only for a weekend and there are no pressures for it to be a certain weekend, eg: “any weekend in September”, then last minute holiday deals are available at very good rates. This includes flights from the major airlines such as British Airways and Iberia and not just the low cost outfits such as Ryanair and Easyjet.

Why?

Well it all comes down to the capacity surplus in the flight market. This feeds through into lower airfares as airlines try to stimulate demand and fill their planes. As its impossible to change the number of seats available on an aircraft its considered better to fill all seats at slightly less than normal fares rather than to fly half empty.

Why travel now?

The present situation is one of the airlines cutting fares to stimulate demand. The hotels are also doing the same due to the reduced number of visitors and this combination is where the majority of a Madrid weekend break costs come from. This situation won’t last past two or three months as the effects of the lower fares will fill the capacity gap at which point airfares and hotel rates can be increased.

So who’s benefiting?

• Travel websites that specialize in Madrid weekend breaks are finding that although the economic climate is lowering their per booking revenue the number of breaks sold is increasing and more than offsetting the revenue drop.
• Cheaper hotel accommodation is being welcomed gladly by those who didn’t book their rooms back at the beginning of 2009.
• Backpackers – Normally an extremely cost conscious market these visitors to Madrid are able to enjoy a higher standard of accommodation, ie hotel room, at the same price for which they had budgeted for a hostel.

Whats missing

All that’s needed now is that the tourist attractions, restaurants, taxis and transport services in Madrid drop their prices as well!

Atletico Madrid reach Champions League group stages

In what was best described as an instantly forgetable match Atletico Madrid secured their qualification for the 2009-10 Champions league with a 2-0 victory over Panathinaikos in the Vicente Calderon.

Atletico Madrid now join city neighbours Real Madrid in Thursdays (27th August) draw where leagues of four teams will be decided although teams from the same country cannot be drawn together at this stage so a European Madrid derby is not on the cards just yet.

Other points of note from the match against Panathanaikos were:

• The scoring of Atletico Madrids 100th goal in Europes top competition by, appropriately enough, star forward Sergio “Kun” Aguero
• The half empty stadium due to the Atletico Madrid executives decision to require payment from Season Ticket holders for the qualifying match whereas the season before the match was free to the same group of fans

Tourism to Spain falling away?

According to the latest statistics from Spains ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism visitors to the country dropped by 10 percent in June. For a country that depends heavily on tourism this is a big blow on top of the problems facing the construction and financial sectors.

Whilst a drop in foreign visitors is an easily measured statistic the harder to define yet far more critical point is the average spend of each. Something that can only be assumed to be down greatly on 2008 if the number of hospitality trade businesses currently up for sale is anything to go by. Madrid has been affected by the change in policy of many companies to cut their travel budgets and to go instead to Internet based video conferencing whilst costal regions, those famous Costas have seen less visitors as people choose to “holiday at home” throughout Europe.

So whats the good news?

Well for the city cultural tourist Madrid hotel prices have fallen dramatically through intense competition for the lower number of potential occupants. Whilst hotels can’t simply cut capacity they can offer 3 for 2 deals effectively offering visitors to Madrid a 33% discount on what one would normally be obliged to shell out. For the business traveller coming to Madrid travelling slightly off peak at the back end of the week also offers savings -just be sure to leave enough time to accomplish everything!

So who’s suffering most?

Hardest hit by the fall in visitor numbers are the attractions and tourism companies providing tours and excursions. Visitors to Madrid are increasingly looking at the tour or attraction on offer and asking themselves “is this really necessary?” The answer in most cases being a resounding “No” as tourists instead decide to try the free attractions or make their own DIY tours using public transport.

The downside for visitors?

With free attractions and activities being well patronized by both foreign visitors and Madrid natives looking to save money the unwary / unprepared visitor can quickly become exasperated with the long queues for museums on Sunday mornings or Retiro park can be a little noisier than what one hoped for!

Car hire problems in Spain

 

As explained in an earlier post Madrid Alicante – The easy way the summer has seen the author making regular trips to Alicante. Whilst in Alicante one stays at one of the modern holiday home developments that are all along the Costa Blanca. Its a nice environment in which to relax and certainly has an international flavour with Dutch, German, Scandinavian and English neighbours.

 

Catching up with the family from Manchester who holiday in the villa next door each year they explained that this year they didn’t bother with a hire car. Looking on from the outside it appeared to be a sensible economizing measure during the “crisis” however one was quickly corrected as the father explained that they had asked for quotes from the local companies but these had come in 3 times more expensive than 2008! Needless to say one was left speechless that Spanish hire car firms could be trying to jack up prices at a time when clients are fewer than in previous years (latest figures show a 9-12% drop in foreign tourists in the region).

 

Returning to Madrid a little digging into the situation has been done and it appears that the situation has come about through the simplest of all business concepts: the law of “Supply and demand”.

 

It appears that the major hire car providers in Spain predicted the 2009 fall off in foreign tourists towards the end of the 2008 season and decided to reduce their fleet sizes. That’s good forward planning and “cutting ones cloth to measure” means that there would be few unoccupied cars so lowering rental costs. Things are all well and good up to this point but instead of reducing the available fleet of rental cars the companies instead decided to mitigate any risk by slashing capacity dramatically! This has led to demand from tourists traveling to Spain far outnumbering the number of available hire cars. So critical is the situation that its even managed to make the BBC news in the UK: BBC article

 

So what solution exists for the visitor to Spain? The last thing anyone should do is wait until arriving at the destination airport to hire their vehicle where, more often than not, you’ll be confronted with an empty lot or highly inflated prices. The simplest way to get around these problems is to give them to someone else. Ie make your Car hire Spain provider work for you by reserving in advance!

 

Thankfully Madrid itself has been spared the worst of the hire car problems with the city emptying out during July and August. There are however minor questions over the availability of certain models due to their having been repositioned to the coast to meet the summer demand. Check out the article on the main site regarding Madrid car hire for details on companies offering hire cars in Madrid.

Ifema convention hotel advice

There have been a couple of queries this week about finding hotels at the Ifema convention and exhibition center located in the Parque Juan Carlos. To be honest the advice that we’ve given many has been at first startling and then very well recieved!

Startling

Well how would you feel if you asked for a recomendation for hotels next to the Ifema center only to be told: “Don’t stay there”  ?

We’re not saying that theres anything wrong with the hotels next to the exhibition center itself simply that if you going to be there for more than one night there is very very little in the way of restaurant variety and the area is simply one hotel after another. Perhaps “sterile” is the word? It is however recomended to stay next to the Ifema conference center if you are only there for one night!

Well received

Suprising as it may sound we recomend that if you are attending a conference or trade fair at the Ifema facility then you are far better off staying in the Nuevos Ministerios area as it offers a large number of restaurants, shopping and business facilities as well as being “in Madrid!”

As a popular area for businesess, especially of the financial sort, the Metro serving the area (also called Nuevos Ministerios) is direct to both the Ifema center and the airport with an average journey time of 20 and 25 minutes respectively. Another benefit of being close to the financial district is the availability of a wider range of Hotels in Nuevos Ministerios as well as the iconic Real Madrid football stadium; Santiago Bernabeu.

Important Note:
Whilst easily done, as it is the airport Metro line, you may wish to consider just how much material you’ll be carrying to and from the exhibition center each day. If its a lot… perhaps Ifema itself is better suited to your needs!