Numbers staying in hotels in July got back to pre-Covid levels, official data confirms

This week the National Statistics Institute (INE) published the data for the number of visitors and overnight stays in hotels during the month of July.

For Malaga province, including the Costa del Sol, just over 2.5 million overnight stays were reported. This time last year, the figure was just over 1.8 million hotel stays. In 2019, before the pandemic, INE data for the month of July also showed 2.5 million stays, meaning, for hotels at least, the market has now fully recovered from Covid-19.

Inflation, with the increase in prices experienced in all sectors of the economy, has been reflected in the cost of stays.

Spending a night in hotel accommodation in Malaga province cost an average of 159 euros in July, one of the main months of high season. In Marbella, the nightly price reached 290 euros, the highest locally.

The INE data also confirms the return of foreign tourists to the province. The number of national visitors who spent a night in July in a hotel in Malaga province stood at more than 950,000, while this figure is more than 1.5 million for foreign tourists.