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Tourists with suitcases walk through Malaga city centre. Migue Fernández
Bumper August for Costa del Sol hotels thanks to foreign tourists while domestic demand slackens
Tourism

Bumper August for Costa del Sol hotels thanks to foreign tourists while domestic demand slackens

Occupancy rates for August were over 90% in Aehcos member establishments across the province, over two points higher than the same month in 2023, and the forecast for September is very close to this figure too

Nuria Triguero

Tuesday, 3 September 2024, 15:08

The Costa del Sol hotels association (Aehcos) declares the overall hotel occupancy rate during the month of August in the province of Malaga to be at 90.9%. This percentage is 2.4% higher than the same month in 2023. "It has been a good month for the entire hotel sector in Malaga with up to six municipalities exceeding 90% occupancy," said José Luque, Aehcos president. Nevertheless, he still called for caution in the run-up to the end of the summer season: "Last-minute bookings and the offers promoted by the hotel industry have served to favour the good figures obtained."

The boom in demand from overseas is what has sustained this growth while tourism from the home market remains in the doldrums for Malaga province. "Domestic demand is falling; we saw this last year and it is still happening," said the vice-president of Aehcos, Javier Hernández, who blames this trend on the reduction in purchasing power suffered by Spanish families due to inflation and the rise in interest rates. "National tourists are reducing their average stay: if they used to come for 10 days, now they come for 7 because they can't afford more." Thus, 60% of travellers staying in hotels associated with Aehcos this August are foreigners and 40% are Spanish.

July with falls in home market

This drop in domestic tourism can be ratified by the July data from the hotel business survey. Hotels in the province of Malaga received 15.7% fewer Spanish travellers during that month than in the same month in 2023, and these travellers made 10% fewer overnight stays. In contrast, international demand grew by 1.8% in terms of travellers and 1.3% in terms of overnight stays. As a result of these two opposing trends, July resulted in a very slight fall in total travellers (-0.06%) and a slightly more significant drop in overnight stays compared to the same month in 2023 (-2.38%). The vice-president of Aehcos confirmed that July was a "slightly strange" month precisely because of the weak performance of tourism from the domestic market, but he is happy that August has compensated for this slight fall.

When asked whether Spanish visitors might be giving up coming to the Costa del Sol because of the prices that hotels are charging, Hernández pointed out that prices have not risen over the last year, citing the KPI (key performance indicator) of gross impact per guest stay, which was 143.50 euros in August, almost eight euros less than August 2023. The fact that foreign clients are booking more in advance has contributed to this drop, which results in lower rates.

According to Aehcos, the balance of the two months of high season (July and August) closes with an average accumulated occupancy rate of 88.8% (in July it was 86.7% and in August, 90.9%) for the province, a figure that is over two percentage points above that of last summer. "The unfinished business is domestic tourism," said Hernández.

By municipality Benalmádena was the one whose hotels were fullest in August, with 97.6% occupancy. It was followed by municipalities such as Fuengirola (95.2%), Mijas (94.2%), Torremolinos (93.8%), Marbella (92.5%) and Malaga city (92.5%). These six tourist spots have exceeded 90% and others such as Frigiliana-Torrox (89.6%) have come very close.

Forecasts

As for the forecasts for the coming months, hotel occupancy in September is expected to be 88.7% in the province, up from 86.7% in the same month in 2023. October, according to initial forecasts, comes with a slightly lower hotel occupancy rate than last year, with 82.3% compared to 83.7%, but Hernández warns that it is still too early to say with any certainty.

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surinenglish Bumper August for Costa del Sol hotels thanks to foreign tourists while domestic demand slackens