Government statistics released last week have laid bare the negative impact of Spanish customs checks on cross-border traffic and Gibraltar’s tourism sector in 2013.
The data reflected sharp double-digit drops in the number of pedestrians, vehicles and coaches crossing the border during the second half of the year.
Similar declines were evident to visitors to the Upper Rock nature reserve and other tourist attractions such as the museum.
In the first 10 months of 2013, – the latest available data – some 672,564 people visited the Upper Rock, down 10% from the previous year.
During August and September, when intense checks were creating border queues of up to several hours, visitor numbers were down by 24% and 14% compared to the same months in 2013.
The visitor total for August was the lowest for that month in nearly a decade, with only 89,079 people visiting the Upper Rock compared to 117,284 in August 2012 and 121,323 in the same month of 2011.
The pattern is the same for other indicators of border traffic, with the sharpest drops registered during some of the busiest months in the tourism calendar, including August and September.
The number of coaches arriving via the frontier in 2013 was 6,127, down 24% from 8,037 coaches in 2012.
In August alone, coach traffic dropped by 40% to 398 compared to 658 coaches in August of 2012. In September, the drop was 41% compared to the same month in 2012.
Visitors to the museum were also down by 28% in August and 13% in September, though they recovered again toward the end of the year.
The total number of visitors crossing the border – a figure that includes both tourists and cross-border commuters, including locals – slipped below 11m for the first time in four years, down 6% from 11.3m in 2012 to reach 10.6m last year.
The year-end total was propped up by strong growth in the early half of the year, with some sharp drops registered in the tail end of 2013.
In December, the total number of people crossing the border into Gibraltar dropped by 20% from 921,300 in 2012 to 735,000 last year.
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE:
- The visitor total for August was the lowest for that month in nearly a decade, with only 89,079 people visiting the Upper Rock compared to 117,284 in August 2012 and 121,323 in the same month of 2011.
- The pattern is the same for other indicators of border traffic, with the sharpest drops registered during some of the busiest months in the tourism calendar, including August and September.
- The data reflected sharp double-digit drops in the number of pedestrians, vehicles and coaches crossing the border during the second half of the year.
