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Pilar Martínez
Malaga
Friday, 10 January 2025, 12:44
The Costa del Sol and Malaga province overall ended 2024 with the best ever year for numbers of tourists visiting, according to the latest data from Turismo Costa del Sol. "It has been an extraordinary year," said the Costa tourist board president, Francisco Salado, while presenting the figures from the past 12 months.
The province welcomed 14.4 million tourists last year, some 474,000 more (3.17%) than 2023. These spent a total of 21.2 billion euros, 10.9% more than in 2023. "It's incredible we need to remind everyone of this each year, but tourism is the main industry not only of this province, but of the Andalucía region and Spain as well, both in terms of income and employment," Salado explained.
The number working in the tourism sector in Malaga province went up by 7% last year, with 137,408 employed, according to the data. "There have been twice as many new jobs created as there has been an increase in tourists. Hotel profitability has also increased by 6%," Salado added.
"Malaga province has once again shown it is the main tourist destination in Andalucía and one of the main destinations in Spain and Europe," he went on to say.
Even after a successful 2024, Salado explained that similar numbers were not guaranteed for 2025, adding that international wars and inflation may affect the market.
The data is not all good news. In 2024 there was a fall in the number of cruise passengers arriving as well as a decline in domestic tourism. Malaga province welcomed 2.45 million Spanish tourists into hotels and self-catering apartment blocks from January to November last year, a decrease of 7.5% compared to the same period in 2023. Over the same period on those types of accommodation, international tourists increased by 6.9%.
To try to win back the Spanish domestic market, Salado announced a series of measures, saying, "The decision to travel to the coast is very personal and depends on families' financial means."
"It is also true that many Spaniards are staying in private holiday lets for which we have no data [broken down]," he added.
An increase in the amount of accommodation available contributed to the Costa del Sol's record year - 659,030 beds were offered in 2024, 13.5% more than a year earlier, the Turismo Costa del Sol report said.
The biggest groups of international visitors to come to Malaga province last year were: the British (1,183,629 visitors), a 7.2% increase; Germans with 341,568 and an increase of 12.8%; French with 334,176 and an increase of 3.5%; the Dutch with 332,044 visitors and an increase of 7.3%; Irish with an increase of 19.9% with 307,714 tourists, as well as Americans, with 220,615, an increase of 26.1%.
"The improvement in connections to the USA has been key. We are confident that these results will stimulate an increase in flights to this market," Salado said, pointing out that not only are tourism officials confident United Airlines will soon announce a year-round flight between Malaga and New York, but that they are also in contact with other airlines to secure direct connections with airports such as Miami, Atlanta and Detroit.
Tourism officials are also waiting for the Chinese government to make a decision on which air route they want with Andalucía.
Salado said 2025 "will be a good year" and added that the forecast of airline seats offered for the first four months of the year shows an increase of 10.7% compared to the same period last year, with 4,165,566 seats.
The ten main markets to the Costa del Sol (United Kingdom, domestic market, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, Ireland, Belgium, Poland and Denmark) are seeing a growth in supply of airline seats to Malaga Airport, he went on to say.
"Turismo Costa del Sol is working hand in hand with the industry and the other authorities, we are going in the right direction, reducing seasonality and prioritising quality, profitability and jobs for our main industry."
Salado, who is also president of the Malaga provincial authority, said strong data should force those who blame tourism for lack of housing to think again.
"The important thing is that governments have now realised that they need to take steps such as lowering the cost of public housing, with direct aid for the purchase of homes, or legislation to give legal security to those who rent out their properties," he said.
"We have to break the cycle whereby the only way out [for homeowners wanting to rent out] is through holiday lettings, given the risk that they will get squatters [if they are rented out long term]. Tourism is not to blame. We have to be very careful not to shoot ourselves in the foot."
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