Malaga mayor backtracks on city tourism department's claim of visitor 'saturation'

Council has put out to tender the contract worth over half a million euros for a company to design tourist routes outside the old town

SUR

Malaga.

Friday, 31 January 2025, 18:38

Mayor of Malaga had to make a swift about turn this week on what his officials really think of tourism in the city when comments in a tender brief for new tourist routes outside the city centre upset the industry.

In line with recent policies and decisions to try to dampen down the quantity of tourists flooding into his city - including banning new Airbnb-style properties in many areas- Francisco de la Torre's tourism department is to spend half a million euros on a company to design and promote routes for tourists to visit the city away from the crowded streets of the Old Town.

In the brief, tourism officials said, "Malaga is experiencing unprecedented levels of tourist saturation, particularly in its historic centre," adding that "this phenomenon causes certain areas to exceed their capacity, negatively affecting both residents and visitors".

In response to headlines that Malaga was admitting its tourism was "unsustainable", days later the mayor stepped in. When asked by journalists, De la Torre sought to correct the words from the council's tourism department. He clarified, "As for the word 'saturation', we ought to make clear it happens only at certain times - it is not a daily issue, just on specific occasions."

Likewise, the mayor also made corrections to the statement from the municipal tourism department, whose report also said that "mass tourism can lead to the spread of low-quality places to eat, deteriorating the culinary experience for both tourists and locals."

De la Torre qualified that statement, saying, "Perhaps that was not a very appropriate term of expression because I don't know of a single one in Malaga. I'm quite categorical about that, there's not a single one. All our eating places have quality, more or less."

The mayor said he would pass on this opinion to his tourism department.

The company that implements this plan for the decongestion of tourism in the city centre has to create a brand and a communication plan, involving the creation of a website, content on social media, audiovisual pieces to upload to YouTube and a programme of tourist ambassadors and activities with influencers among other measures. These include the La Malagueta, Soho, Pedregalejo and Tabacalera areas as well as the mountains behind the city.

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