The season started in earnest last Tuesday, and the Costa del Sol faces a summer like few in recent memory. It is hoped that tourism figures will not fall below those of last year, and that national tourism will save the season. A total of fifteen European countries are now in recession, and some of them, especially Britain and Germany, have traditionally been essential to the Malaga tourism industry. But Spain too is in deep recession, and as the saying goes: sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander. If foreign tourists are unable to come to the Costa del Sol this summer, so too are Malaga tourists unable to travel abroad this summer. Their only real alternative is to explore the province of Malaga in a way they may never have done before.

The problem was beginning to become apparent from June 2008, and by the end of the summer it was obvious the situation was serious. Figures recently published by the Costa del Sol Tourist Board tell us that from June to September 2008, there were 8.1 million overnight stays in Malaga hotels, which amounted to 1.7 per cent more than in the previous year. The number of tourists choosing to stay in hotels also rose slightly, with a one per cent rise in national tourists and a 0.3 per cent increase in foreign tourists, amounting to a total increase of 2.1 million. But occupation rates fell from June to September last year, the biggest decrease being in August, when the results were down more than four percentage points to reach 81 per cent. The reason for this, however, was more an increase in the number of hotels in the province than fewer tourists.

“If anything saves us this year, it will be national tourism,” says Miguel Sánchez, president of Tourism in the Confederation of Andalusian Businesspeople. “People will still go on holiday, but will probably spend less, have shorter holidays and take them here in Andalucía.”

Also, of course, there is the new AVE high-speed train to take into account, linking Malaga with Seville and other large population centres. It was apparent, Sánchez tells us, that the Holy Week celebrations and the long weekend break at the beginning of May attracted as many tourists as in previous years, and most of them were Spanish. “Now we hope they remain loyal to us and come back again this summer,” adds Sánchez.

Few reservations

Even so, not as many early reservations have been made this season, but this is becoming the norm in recent years. People tend to wait until the last minute to decide where to go, and the hoteliers are confident that the figures will rise as the height of the summer gets under way.

Hoteliers we spoke to said that most reservations made so far are for the first fortnight in July, while August reservations are slow to come in. The president of the Association of Hoteliers of the Costa del Sol (Aehcos), José Carlos Escribano, tells us that the decrease in occupation levels will probably be between ten and fifteen per cent this year.

But Escribano also confirms that internal tourism in Andalucía is likely to rise. Six of every ten Spanish tourists who spent their holidays on the Costa del Sol last year were Andalusian, he tells us, and they continue to resist the worst effects of the recession.