travel CAR HIRE: Car hire in Madrid and Barcelona, in times of crisis.

PR Log (Press Release) – Aug 25, 2009 – The Secretary of the Spanish Tourism Department, Joan Mesquida, expected a decline of 10% in foreign tourist arrivals for the summer season. Despite this, the car rental sector appears not to have noticed the decline in their levels of reservations.

Concerning Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante airport, travel CAR HIRE's forecasts for car hire demand for the current season has been exceeded. This phenomenon may be traced back to a combination of several factors; all of them consequences of the crisis-laden situation Spain 's economy currently is in.

More precisely, the majority of the Spanish car hire companies, especially the medium and small ones, have not extended their fleets this year, because they have expected a drop in the number of holidaymakers in Spain. Besides, many of them have sold their oldest models through sales on the second-hand car market.

On the other hand, holidaymakers nowadays hesitate longer with their bookings, use car hire comparison websites and are up for bargain offers. It is not a big surprise that the economic instability makes the people be careful with their decisions."

For car hire Alicante, Barcelona or Madrid it meant already in June (that was before the summer holidays have started in the United Kingdom or Germany) that availability for last minute tourist could not always be guaranteed.

Anyway, car hire Barcelona and car hire Madrid are still available during this season at travel CAR HIRE, thanks to its wide network of car hire suppliers in Spain. Figures for car hire Alicante or car hire Barcelona do not drop down, as people from countries in northern European still decide to spend their summer holidays in Spain. That is why travel CAR HIRE is expecting positive results by the end of the summer campaign and values the upholding and outgo of its expectations as a challenge.

More info at http://www.travelcarhire.com