The 2023/2024 Christmas campaign gave a great economic boost in the municipality of Murcia, based on the tourism and labor market data released this Tuesday by the councilors of Tourism, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Jesús Pacheco, and Open Government, Economic Promotion and Employment, Mercedes Bernabé. When looking at the figures for the same period last year, hotel occupancy grew by 10% and the almost 30,000 contracts caused the unemployed to fall by 1,746 compared to the end of the 2022 fiscal year.
Pacheco and Bernabé appeared together with the president of the HoyTú employers' association, Jesús Jiménez, after the meeting he held this Tuesday in La Glorieta with the mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta. Jiménez highlighted that hoteliers have experienced “the best Christmas campaign in history”
Specifically, Jesús Pacheco reported that occupancy in the 31 hotels in the city of Murcia increased by 10% in the month of December 2023 compared to the previous year, reaching 58.07%. The percentage rises to 71.64% on weekends, 6 percentage points more than in December 2022. “These are historical data, taking into account that the month of December is not usually good for hotel occupancy,” stated the councilor of Tourism.
Likewise, the average price of a hotel stay during December was 63.12 euros (66.56 euros on weekends), when in December of the previous year it reached 58.19 euros (62.25 euros on weekends). ). In this way, hotel profitability (average profit per hotel room) was 36.66 euros (47.69 euros on weekends), 20% more than last year.
The good hotel occupancy data during Christmas reinforce the growing trend of tourism in Murcia in the last year. As the mayor, José Ballesta, already announced at the Christmas breakfast with the media, the year 2023 saw a record number of 825,256 overnight stays in the capital's hotels, with a spectacular increase in the second half of the year.
Another historical record occurs in the traveler data, as reported by councilor Jesús Pacheco. For the first time, the figure of half a million tourists is exceeded, reaching 506,549. “Murcia has had more travelers than all the municipalities on the coast combined,” said the mayor of Tourism, Commerce and Consumer Affairs. There are 28,528 more travelers (6%) than in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
Employment data
Although the Murcia City Council does not have specific data regarding the behavior of commerce during this Christmas campaign, the municipality's merchant associations expressed that sales have been better than in previous years, according to municipal sources in a statement.
On the other hand, the Councilor for Open Government, Economic Promotion and Employment, Mercedes Bernabé, said that 2023, despite a hesitant first few months, was a historic year for employment in the municipality. The councilor pointed out that the Christmas campaign generated almost 30,000 work contracts in the municipality, between the months of November and December. It must be remembered that Christmas activities in Murcia began on November 24, with the switching on of the extraordinary lighting, which coincided with Black Friday.
The Christmas campaign contributed decisively to the city of Murcia ending the 2023 financial year with 1,746 fewer unemployed people (-6.23%) than at the end of 2022. The sector where unemployment decreased the most between November and December 2023 was in Services, which shows the positive impact that the Christmas campaign has had on the labor market.
Likewise, Murcia reached the highest number recorded in the history of the municipality in terms of Social Security affiliates. The data for the month of November (the last segregated) indicates that there are 243,860 members of Social Security in the municipality, “a figure that, taking into account the positive evolution that the labor market has had in the Region in the last month, It will possibly be surpassed in December,” said the Councilor for Open Government, Economic Promotion and Employment.
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