Costa del Sol News: Record year for Malaga as tourism statistics announced

MALAGA Capital beat its own record last year by exceeding 1.4 million travellers for the first time, which represents an increase of three per cent compared to 2018, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE). In addition, the stays increased by 5.7 per cent reaching 2,785,302.

“2019 has been an exceptionally good year where Malaga city has broken all the figures so far registered,” said the Councillor for Tourism and Promotion, Rosa Sánchez, who has reported the data at a press conference with the mayor of Fiestas, Teresa Porras.

The average stay of hotel tourists last year was 1.98 nights and the occupancy rate reached 78.65 per cent, which shows, according to Sánchez, that seasonality in Malaga does not occur as in other areas. The capital of the Costa del Sol was the urban destination with the second highest occupation in Spain, only behind Barcelona’s 80.28 per cent.

The number of international tourists already accounts for 61.84 per cent of the total number of travellers staying in the city’s hotels. Thus, 871,998 arrived, 3.43 per cent more, which generated 1,832,8889 overnight stays.