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Tourists outside a hotel in Marbella.
The growth in tourism on the Costa is reflected in hotel profits and employment

The growth in tourism on the Costa is reflected in hotel profits and employment

The revenue per room has improved by five per cent in a year, and occupancy and staffing levels have also increased in that time

NURIA TRIGUERO

Friday, 30 August 2019, 12:52

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The increase in the number of people staying in hotels in Malaga province and the Costa del Sol is having a direct effect on their bottom line. The most important indicator for measuring the success of hotel businesses is RevPar (it refers to revenue per available room) and this improved by nearly five per cent between July last year and the same month this year.

IN FIGURES

The average revenue per available room in the province is now 104.42 euros (with an interannual increase of 4.8%) and on the Costa del Sol in particular it is 108.53 euros (+4.6%). The Malaga coast is the only tourist area of Andalucía where the RevPar has increased. On the coasts of Granada, Almeria, Cadiz and Huelva it has dropped since last year.

The average daily rate in hotels in the province rose in July to 127.72 euros, after a 3.3 per cent inter-annual increase. That figure places it at the head of Andalucía, although there is little difference from Cadiz (126.32 euros). The most expensive tourist area in the whole of Andalucía is still Marbella, at around 200 euros per room per night.

These figures are from INE, the national institute of statistics, and show the "excellent performance" of July in terms of visitors, overnight stays, occupancy rates and employment, as reported by the Costa del Sol tourist board this week.

The month ended with 2.8 per cent more overnight stays than in July 2018, and 81.7 per cent of the rooms were occupied in the 609 establishments which were open.

Looking at the period from January to July, there was an increase of 10.4 per cent in tourists from elsewhere in Spain, and 3.4 per cent of those from abroad.

Principal markets

The following markets have shown a significant increase; Ireland, with 102,807 travellers staying in hotels in the province (+13.6%); Italy, which increased by 14.9 per cent to 85,566 clients; and the USA, whose numbers grew by 11.6 per cent to 85,122.

The number of visitors from Finland also increased, with 41,508 staying in hotels between January and July this year, which was a rise of 18.6 per cent. Polish visitors increased by 12.9 per cent to 36,750, and there were 22 per cent more tourists from Russia, totalling 26,349.

The only reductions by nationality in terms of visitors in hotels and apartments were those from France (-15.1%) and Denmark (-10.9%).

The president of the Malaga Diputación, the provincial authority, and Turismo Costa del Sol, Francisco Salado, says that "the strategy of our organisation is to diversify markets, so we don't depend solely on the traditional ones. This is proving successful and we are seeing some very positive increases in tourism this year".

In fact, Malaga is third in the ranking of coastal provinces, behind Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, in terms of visitor numbers during the period in question. There were 3,385,399 tourists, which was 5.9 per cent more than the first seven months of 2018. With regard to overnight stays, Malaga province registered the fifth-highest number, behind the Balearic Islands, Las Palmas, Barcelona and Tenerife.

"These figures show that the results for this destination continue to improve, and the most important thing is that they also have a positive effect on job creation," said Salado. The number of people employed in hotels has grown by 4.6 per cent in one year, and in July there were 13,696 workers in the hotel industry on the Costa del Sol.

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