Costa del Sol and Malaga province hits record-breaking 14-million overnight stays in first six months of year

We're already into August and many travel experts and analysts have been commenting on the excellent performance of tourism along the Costa del Sol for the first half of the year in spite of the concerns that loomed over this due to the slowdown in Spanish holidaymakers heading south for their annual break.

Now data from Spain's national statistics institute (INE), published on Thursday, confirm this unprecedented performance up to June. The tourism situation report that Turismo Costa del Sol compiles every month based on INE data shows that, for the first time, all tourist accommodation, except for holiday rental properties which are not yet included in these monthly analyses, has exceeded fourteen million stays in the first six months of the year. This figure means that the Costa del Sol as a key destination has gained 1.1 million more stays from January to June compared to the same period last year, i.e. 9% more. This is despite the fact that this period includes the weakest months for the tourism industry - January and February - as well as one of the worst Easter weeks on record, marred by constant rain and the fact that it came early this year.

However, this strong growth, which is determined by the 13.4% increase in the number of nights booked by international tourists, shows that this destination is beginning to overcome the unresolved issue of marked seasonality, that travellers are beginning to enjoy the Costa del Sol outside the peak summer months, and that the improvement in flight connections during the low season is beginning to make its mark.

Moreover, it is important to highlight that these record-breaking numbers also coincide with a time when domestic tourism to the Costa is in clear decline over the six-month period as a whole and with a more marked drop in June. In fact, the indicators for holidaymakers and overnight stays by Spanish tourists are the only ones that show up negatively in the statistics for the first half of the year. Specifically, almost 2% fewer domestic visitors have arrived and 4% fewer nights have been booked in hotels, rural houses, campsites and tourist flats from January to June.

These figures contrast with the boost from international markets, which have generated 1.2 million more overnight stays in these first six months compared to the same period of what has been the best complete year to date in the Costa del Sol's history as a tourist destination, 2023.

Only campsites have managed to maintain the levels of domestic tourism, even growing some, up by 3.5% in overnight stays. These data suggest that the price might be one of the key factors making the Spanish hold back on bookings. In this sense, the Costa del Sol Tourism report points out that hotel rates in June in Malaga province as a whole stood at 139.9 euros, compared to 137.4 last year. That is almost twenty euros more per night than the Andalusian average and 17 euros more than the national average.

On the other hand, further inland from the coast, the picture is nowhere near as rosy and tourist accommodation there has suffered the most in the first six months of the year. By the end of June it had accumulated a 31% drop in arrivals by both domestic and foreign guests, with the hardest hit - a 56% drop - coming from Spanish visitors.

Among all these data we can clearly see that it is the hotels that are the driving force pulling in so many visitors, accounting for ten million of the fourteen million stays registered in the six-month period, marking another milestone by exceeding ten million overnight stays in hotels for the first time. These lodgings also noted the decline in domestic tourism, with 3% fewer overnight stays and 1.3% fewer tourists from other parts of Spain. These are the only indicators that appear in red, compared with a three-point increase in the average length of stay, which stands at 3.28 days, and in average occupancy, which is close to 60% after rising by 2.3%. This upward trend has also led to more job creation. Specifically, between January and June hotels required almost 900 more workers than in the same period last year. Almost 14,600 people are working in this sector.

The healthy state of tourism on the Costa del Sol is also reflected in the creation of 444 companies and the generation of a total of 8,262 jobs during these six months, an increase of 5.5%.