Costa del Sol accommodation records one million overnight stays up to July

This has enabled them to reach the milestone of 18 million stays between January and July: 18,394,945 nights, 1,089,104 more than in the same period of 2025, representing a rise of 6.3%, according to a Turismo Costa del Sol report.

The report confirms that July exceeded expectations with a 7.5% increase in overnight stays across all accommodation types the INE (national institute of statistics) monitors: hotels, holiday flats, rural guesthouses and campsites, excluding activity in holiday villas.

These establishments recorded 3,843,756 overnight stays in July. Of these, 2.6 million were bookings by foreign tourists, which grew at a rate of 6.1%.

The study shows that July was a good month for the sector as a whole, but also for each sector individually, except for interior areas because summer is not exactly the peak season for their activity.

Both campsites and holiday flats ended July with positive figures for all key indicators: visitor numbers, overnight stays, average length of stay and occupancy rates. Furthermore, there were sharp increases in the number of nights booked, rising by 17.6% and 29.8%, respectively.

In the case of hotels, only arrivals and stays by Spanish visitors slightly declined, but foreign tourists offset that drop.

Other indicators show an upward trend, with a notable 4.2% increase in average occupancy compared with the same period last year, exceeding 77% of available beds.

Looking at the first seven months as a whole, the sector-by-sector breakdown is very similar to that of July, with positive growth predominating, except in the rural tourism accommodation sector.

The report also compares accommodation activity in the Costa del Sol with that of Spain's main coastal provinces. Malaga's coast ranks fourth in Spain in terms of the number of guests and sixth in terms of nights booked, behind the Balearic Islands, Barcelona, Las Palmas and Alicante.

Furthermore, the report analyses trends in the regulated accommodation supply, in this case including holiday homes registered with the RTA (Andalusian tourism register). It confirms that turnover from accommodation and the number of beds continue to rise.

According to figures for July, there were a total of 97,763 establishments in the province, 3,010 more than between January and June 2025, representing an increase of 3.18%.

These accommodation establishments provided a total of 720,612 beds, growing at a rate of 3.5%, with an increase of 24,441 beds in the first seven months of the year compared with the same period last year.

As for the markets driving these positive results, Spain, the UK, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands contributed the most, with an upward trend except in the case of Dutch visitors, who fell by 6.1%.

In contrast, several countries experienced double-digit growth in the first seven months of the year. These include Italy, up 12%; Poland, with a rise of 28.8%; Sweden, 11.2%; Denmark, 13%; and Norway, 11%.

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