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A teacher gives a Spanish class to his students at Debla school. SUR
Language tourism, growing in Malaga

Language tourism, growing in Malaga

The city strengthens its position as a leader in the sector, with the arrival of more than 27,000 students last year and the growing presence of language immersion schools

Lorena Cádiz

Friday, 31 January 2025, 18:58

Spanish language schools for foreigners are increasingly popular in Malaga and its province and this has been a growing sector for some years now. The data proves this and suggests that the future prospects also look good.

According to the latest published data, 49,247 students visited Andalucía in 2023 to participate in the courses offered by Spanish language schools for foreigners. Of this group, 27,089 came to Malaga, each staying nearly three weeks, on average. The Spanish Federation of Associations of Spanish Schools for Foreigners (Fedele), whose headquarters are located in Malaga, revealed in a recent report that the average expenditure of the students was 730 euros per week. This is a figure that includes accommodation, cultural visits, leisure, registration, the course and numerous other activities.

This, according to the federation, means that this year, schools in Malaga generated 59.1 million euros. Everything points to 2024 having left figures higher than the previous year.

Students over 65 now make up 8% of the total and are the fastest growing age group for language schools

"2023's figures were back to pre-pandemic levels but we believe that in 2024 we have surpassed the figures of 2019 and that we have broken records," explained Miguel Ochoa, president of the association of Spanish schools for foreigners in Malaga, Nacem.

This is an organisation with more than twenty years of history, with some of the city's Spanish schools founded half a century ago. There are currently 13 schools that are part of the association, all of them accredited by the Cervantes Institute.

Right now its scope is local, bringing together only the centres in Malaga, but the goal is to this year become provincial, adding an expected total of 20 accredited schools, outside the city.

"In recent years, except for during the pandemic, we have moved in the right direction in terms of number of students, though Malaga has always been a very good destination. It is true that students used to stay for longer, on average, but the outlook is still very positive," Ochoa explained.

Today, most of the students who attend these schools are between 12 and 18 years of age (38.63%), or 19 and 25 years of age (17.63%). But there is also a considerable group of older students, between 26 and 45 years of age (22.63%) and between 46 and 65 (11.54%). Those over 65, represent 8% of the students.

The latter group, the over-65s, has seen the sharpest increase in participation in recent years. "These are people who are retired, who have disposable income and come to learn the language and soak up the culture. They usually have some prior knowledge but want to have a linguistic immersion in the place itself, with local people and native teachers," explained the president of Nacem.

Regarding the nationality of the students, there is a wide variety. "We have people from all over Europe, with Germany being the country that sends us the most students, but also from Italy, the United Kingdom and Denmark. In recent years we have seen that the American market has grown a lot, as well as the Asian market, with students coming from China, Japan and Korea," he added.

"We always talk about education or tourism, but the combination, language tourism, is fantastic. Our students are great ambassadors for Malaga in their respective countries. They also typically stay for three weeks so spend a decent sum of money on transport, food and education before returning to their countries and speaking positively about their experiences," said Blanca Roters, head of the Clic Malaga school. The company opened its first centre in Seville 41 years ago, before arriving in Cadiz in 2005 and in Malaga 12 years later.

"We saw how popular Malaga was starting to become and that it could be the perfect destination. Since then we have had no regrets," said Roters, who puts the number of students that her centre in Malaga receives every year at 1,500.

American and Asian markets

"We have a great variety of nationalities. The change that has taken place since the pandemic is remarkable. We are finally receiving students from other markets that are not European, like Asians, Americans, Canadians. Direct flights, such as the one from New York or the connection with Asia through Turkey, have been very helpful," she explained.

What has not affected the schools much yet has been the arrival of digital nomads in the city. "There is some demand, but it is rather residual," said Miguel Ochoa, who added that they are a target audience. "It is noticeable that there are many more foreigners in Malaga, but they do not have the availability required by our programmes, in which students come exclusively to learn Spanish. There are some cases, but they are not in the majority," said Blanca Roters.

Accommodation

Many of these digital nomads want to learn the language but they tend to use other course formats, especially online, which are more suited to their needs. Spanish schools for foreigners not only offer teaching, but also the possibility of arranging accommodation and a wide range of activities, such as visits or cultural excursions. "All of them are led by our teachers, so they are like a continuation of the classroom."

Roters emphasised the problem of accommodation, a growing issue for these businesses. "The schools offer accommodation, either through their own residences (there are many schools that have their own accommodation), through host families or through other providers, such as agreements with university residences," explained the CEO of Clic. In any case, "it is a real 'puzzle' finding accommodation at a fair price".

Despite this, Roters said more and more students prefer to ask the schools to provide them with housing. "In the last few years, we have gone from 30 to 70 per cent of students booking through us." While housing is a problem for the school, she said, "We are not the only ones [affected], it is a generalised problem in Malaga."

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