Marbella records highest number of overnight stays by foreign tourists in seven years

Marbella has registered the highest number of overnight stays by foreign tourists in November in the last seven years. The town welcomed a total of 33,400 tourists last month, of which 24,790 came from abroad while 8,610 were Spanish. The general director of Marbella tourism, Laura de Arce, has said that the town's hotel occupancy was 54.3 per cent; a five per cent increase on the same month in 2022.

The data also revealed that foreign tourists tend to stay for longer periods than national tourists and with just a few more days to go before the end of 2023, overnight stays by international travellers for the whole year amounted to 82.05 per cent, the highest percentage since records began.

De Arce detailed that in terms of nationalities, "all the countries for which we receive data from the INE [Spanish national institute of statistics] have grown, that is, Spain, Germany, France, Britain and the other countries option, which includes those that are not mentioned".

She went on to say, “as we mentioned last month, with regard to the number of overnight stays, we are currently above the figures for the year 2022 by 195,829" and added, "We have also already exceeded the number of tourists received compared with 2022 by 31,000 people, even if the last month of the year has not yet been counted".

In terms of average prices, De Arce pointed out that guests paid an average of 173.92 euros per room this November compared to 157.63 last year and 97.65 in 2019.

According to municipal sources, on 1 November the town had already exceeded the figure for the whole of 2022 by almost 84,000 overnight stays. Among the different tourism sectors that the town specialises in, the 'luxury' sector stands out, which translates into a visitor profile with high purchasing power that consumes in the town and generates wealth.

One of the niche markets that Marbella town hall has been focusing on recently is north American countries. As the mayor Ángeles Muñoz recently pointed out, "The close relationship with 'Virtuoso', the largest platform of luxury travel agencies in the USA, has strengthened the link with the luxury sector as well as the Solheim Cup taking place in the town in September, which has put Marbella at the epicentre of the international golf sector, especially for women."

The mayor also valued "the importance of the direct flight from Malaga to New York" although she pointed out that "the number of people arriving in the town this year has been greater than that of the aforementioned connection, so North Americans have arrived in the town in different ways".