- EDITIONS: Spanish News Today Murcia Today Alicante Today
Date Published: 23/07/2021
ARCHIVED - Only 62 per cent of Malaga hotel rooms booked for July
The Costa del Sol has been badly affected by Covid figures and restrictions, especially municipalities reliant on British tourists
The Hotelier Association on the Costa del Sol, Aehcos, has estimated just a four-point increase in hotel bookings in July, with just 62 per cent of hotel rooms occupied in the province of Málaga.
The estimation for August doesn’t fare any better and hotel owners are yet to feel the benefits of the British government’s relaxation of some travel restrictions for people visiting Spain from July 19.
For municipalities which are especially dependant on tourists from the United Kingdom, such as Fuengirola, Torremolinos and Benalmádena, this year’s figures are a particular cause for concern, with just 47, 59 and 68 per cent of hotels booked, respectively.
Other municipalities with more dependence on domestic, rather than international tourists have slightly better occupancy rates, for example, Málaga city (77 per cent) and Nerja (76 per cent).
Aehcos has also insisted that, in order to establish the province of Málaga as a “safe” holiday destination, the metrics used to calculate the rate of infection need to be “reconsidered”.
The president of the association has said “only the residential population is being taken into account and not the ‘floating’ population” when, in many touristic municipalities, like Marbella, “the latter is 200 per cent higher than the residential population”.
Andalucía’s regional government has assured the municipalities which face this statistical problem that they are working on different metrics to better represent the epidemiological data in municipalities with large non-residential populations.
Other parts of Spain are also feeling the effects of increased restrictions and rising infection rates, with tourist reservations recently falling by 10 per cent in the Valencia region.
Contact Murcia Today: Editorial 966 260 896 /
Office 968 018 268