Malaga ranks tops for city breaks and culture

MALAGA CITY is the favourite destination for cultural tourism and city breaks in Andalucia, according to the Malaga Councillor for Tourism and Sport, Elias Bendodo. Nationally, the city ranked ahead of cities like Madrid, Cordoba, Sevilla or San Sebastian, coming second only by Barcelona.

Bendodo said that Malaga should be pleased with last year’s results, because 853,481 tourists booked into hotels in the city, 14.35 per cent more than in 2009, and 8.9 per cent more than the best year for tourism until now, 2008.

Meanwhile, 12.75 per cent more people stayed in the city, reaching a total of 1,591,552, with an average stay of 1.85 days.

The Internet is the main tool used by visitors to the Costa del Sol to find information before their trip, as well as planning and booking hotels and activities.

 The improvements seen in Malaga are better than those seen in Spain or Andalucia as a whole, and Bendodo said that Andalucia needs to “reinvent” itself to obtain better results.

Just over 54 per cent of the tourists who stayed in Malaga city hotels in 2010 were Spanish, some five per cent more than the previous year, and most of them came from the rest of Andalucia, followed by Madrid and Cataluña.

The number of foreign visitors has risen by 28.1 per cent, and the UK continues to be the main market, with 63,430 people, a rise of 13.17 per cent. The UK is followed by Germany and France, then Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland, which rose by 50 per cent, and finally the USA and Italy which rose by 30 per cent.

Malaga Tourism Department attended six national and 15 international fairs, in France, Portugal, Belgium, Ireland, Czech Republic, Germany, the USA, Russia, Sweden, Holland and Italy.

Picture Credit: jesusmarinetto