Malaga records three million hotel stays in a year for the first time in history

Malaga city hotels have registered a record three million overnight stays in the first 11 months of this year, according to new figures.

The figure, published by Spain's INE national statistics institute, beats the total 2.8 million hotel stays recorded last year, which was about 100,000 more than in 2019, the year before the pandemic.

Malaga city hall pointed out that hotel bookings last month raised the total number of overnight stays so far in 2023 to 3,071,226 nights, more than the 2,877,592 registered from January to December 2022. "The city crossed the barrier of three million stays by registering 252,132 hotel nights in November by the 117,526 hotel travellers who, according to INE data, passed through Malaga city in the penultimate month of the year," it said.

Malaga city is also in the top five in Spain in terms for quality and visitor spending, based on data from the INE and the Alliance for Excellence in Tourism (Exceltur). It showed that Malaga was the fourth city in Spain with the highest increase in hotel profitability, after a rise of 35.5% compared to the first nine months of 2019. Only Girona, Oviedo and Santa Cruz de Tenerife experienced a greater increase.

The November report also pointed out how more international visitors were choosing to travel to Malaga. In November, two out of every three of the 168,593 overnight stays were foreign tourists, with those from the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom the most common visitors.

The British market continues to be the leader for visitors and stays, with 12,040 visitors who booked 31,167 hotel nights. The Netherlands and Germany are in second and third place in terms of the number of tourists and stays. They are followed by Italy, the United States and France. The occupancy rate in November was 79.2% and the average stay was 2.15 days.

Hotel forecasts

The city is expected to be full for New Year's Eve, with 97% occupancy expected, according to the Association of Hotel Businessmen of the Costa del Sol (Aehcos). This figure for the Costa del Sol as a whole will be almost 81% for the last weekend of the year, from 29 December to 1 January 2024, exceeding the previous year's figure by seven points.