Vicente Cutanda, president of the Alicante Provincial Association of State Lottery and Betting Sellers to Alicante Plaza, has revealed that lottery sales experienced a 30% fall in the past few months due to the low number of tourists in the area.
The president explained that sales for the special Christmas draw have suffered a setback, even though they usually help Spain close the year with a positive balance.
Cutanda explained that the decrease in the number of tourists circulating in the area has led to fewer tickets being sold in Alicante, which currently has a hotel capacity of 60%.
In Benidorm, a municipality in the Mediterranean coast, sales are down approximately 50%, while ticket sales for the Christmas draw have dropped 40% when compared to August numbers in previous years.
Although the ANAPAL group hopes to recover in the upcoming months with the Christmas campaign, in Alicante they foresee that tourism will close out 2020 in negative numbers.
In Sevilla, there has been an increase in lottery sales in recent weeks, but there’s still a big difference between 2019 and 2020.
Agencies estimate that sales have dropped around 40% in recent months, although the use of credit cards and a new website, featuring online payment methods, have allowed lotteries to navigate the crisis.
