Online travel bookings are unlikely to become the preferred method of buying travel is Spain until at least 2022.
Penetration of online bookings had reached by 43% during 2017, according to Phocuswright market analyst, Fabian Gonzalez, speaking at the FITUR event in Spain this week.
Our sister brand Phocuswright forecasts online bookings in Spain will reach somewhere in the region of 47% by 2021.
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The figure for 2021 in Spain is, startlingly, lower than the level achieved by the wider European continent in 2017, when online bookings hit 51%, equating to around €138 billion a year.
Online penetration is increasing by a percentage point ever year, according to Phocuswright's forecasts.
In terms of the supplier share of the online pie, accommodation bookings account for around 50%, with airlines accounting for around a third.
This is in contrast to the total travel sector (offline and online), where accommodation takes up around two-thirds of the overall volume of bookings.
Spanish Online Travel Overview Twelfth Edition
Within the online segment, around half of bookings went via online travel agencies in 2017 - a figure that has remained fairly consistent since 2015 and is likely to continue until 2021.
Spain has always lagged behind the overall European online penetration rate, according to Gonzalez, although there will be a gradual shift over time.
This is mainly due to generational differences, he says, but as the younger, web-savvy population become travel consumers the overall online/mobile rate will gradually.
He adds:
"Although the penetration of mobile broadband is one of the largest in the world, remote purchasing has never been as relevant as in other countries, perhaps because of a social/customs issue, as happens in Italy and other Mediterranean countries."