Malaga-Madrid AVE reopening delay crushes hospitality sector

The announcement that the high-speed rail in Malaga will not reopen until after Easter has crushed the local hospitality sector. Easter Week traditionally marks the start of the high tourist season and experts warn that the province could face a lot of losses in the coming weeks.

Javier Frutos, president of Mahos (the Association of Hospitality Entrepreneurs of Málaga), representing over 1,000 regional establishments, says he feels "indignation" after hearing the news because he believes that "more human and technical resources could have been put in place" to solve the problem earlier.

"We are sympathetic and understand that the rains can delay, but we believe that we must do more when tourism bears the consequences," he said. Frutos is concerned about the current situation, because it will likely affect both tourism and other sectors that live off visitors.

"The AVE is one of the leaps in quality that Malaga has made. Connectivity with Madrid is essential," he said. What worries Frutos is that most of the tourists that visit the province at this time of year come from within the country.

Frutos is confident, however, that Holy Week is sufficiently attractive for visitors to come anyway with the means currently available to them. "Whoever wants to come will come, even if it is more inconvenient," he said, adding that Malaga is "a very attractive city".

Frutos believes that the lack of high-speed connections will be especially noticeable during the first part of Easter Week, with numbers recovering towards the second part. "At the moment we cannot assess the impact this will have on restaurants because reservations tend to be made closer to the date," he said.