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Costa del Sol and Malaga Tourism Breaking Records

Autumn on the coast is signified by a few clouds
Autumn on the costa del sol is signified by a few clouds

A typical Costa del Sol autumn; a bit cloudy.

During the month of October more than 30 million overnight stays were recorded in hotel establishments across Spain. This represents an increase of 1.1% when compared to the same month of 2016. Overnight stays of travellers’ resident in Spain decreased by 2.2%, while those of non-residents increased 2.6%.

The average stay decreased by 0.9% compared to October 2016, standing at 3.3 overnight stays per traveller.

During the first 10 months of 2017, overnight stays increased by 2.8% compared to the same period of the previous year.

Andalucía, Cataluña, Valencia and Madrid are the main destinations for travellers residing in Spain in October, with annual variation rates in the number of overnight stays of -5.9%, -2.0%, -3, 5% and -4.0%, respectively.

The main destination chosen by non-resident travellers was the Balearic Islands, with 26.6% of the total number of overnight stays. In this community overnight stays by foreigners increased by 3.7% compared to October 2016. The next most popular destinations for non-residents were the Canary Islands (with 26.0% of the total number of overnight stays and a growth of 1.4%) and Catalonia (with 15.5% of the total and a decrease of 2.9%).

Malaga

In October, the province of Malaga accounted for more than 40% of overnight hotel stays in Andalucia, exceeding two million.

Hotel travellers in the region grew by two percent with respect to the same month of the previous year. The number of stays in the region exceeded the average by nine points.

According to Costa del Sol Tourism, overnight hotel stays amounted to 2,008,005, representing 40.7% of all hotel stays in Andalucia during October. The figure is similar to those from October in the previous year, although this year’s figure is 0.7% lower.

“Not so with the number of hotel travellers, which grew by 2.1%, reaching the figure of 530,635 people staying in hotels in the province of Malaga,” said the president of Tourism Costa del Sol, Elías Bendodo.

Positive Signs

Already well into the winter months, Malaga continues to show good overall figures which can be seen in the hotel tourism figures released by the National Institute of Statistics.

34.7% of the 124,559 rooms available in Andalucía are on the Costa del Sol, which means 43,215 hotel suites. With regard to beds, the percentage is similar, with the Province of Málaga having 95,594 of the 274,060 available in Andalucía.

Other positive figures from October in the province of Malaga include hotel staff employment which is around 15,000 people. No less than 40% of all people working in hotels in Andalucía are in Malaga. One in four Andalusian hotels is based in the province of Malaga.

Another aspect in which Malaga is above the average for Andalucía is in regard to the degree of hotel occupancy. The area reached 66.8% occupancy during October, 9.4% above the average for Andalucía, which stands at 57.4%.

“Data such as hotel occupancy encourages us to believe in the strategy of the tourist office,” said Bendodo, adding that until recently the region was seen as a sun and beach destination, but visitor numbers are remaining high throughout off-season.