Costa del Sol breaks tourism records – can it carry on?

The Spanish Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, has praised, “the extraordinary performance of tourism in 2023”, a record year.

The latest figures and final estimates from the Ministry of Industry and Tourism point to an increase in tourist arrivals to Spain of 19 per cent over 2022. This translates into more than 84 million tourists who spent€108,000 million in shops, hotels and other sectors, a figure that is 23.8 per cent higher than in 2022 and 17.4 per cent higher than in the year before the pandemic.

For the Costa del Sol, 2023 was also the best tourist year in its history, with 14 million tourists and 29 million overnight stays. These figures were made possible by the performance of the international market: after a 2022 in which the main arrivals on the Costa del Sol were national travellers, in 2023 domestic tourists fell by 3.4 per cent but, international tourists staying in hotels and apartments have increased by 10 per cent.

The recovery of the German market stands out, with a growth of 24.7 per cent and the British market, has also experienced an increase of 4.2 per cent. The Netherlands grew by 4.9 per cent. France by 12.1 per cent. Ireland, 13.8 per cent. Italy, 33 per cent. The USA showed an increase of 26.6 percent, a figure that was influenced by the air connection with New York and the Solheim Cup golf tournament.

Looking ahead

In the first four months of 2024, there are more than 3.7 million passengers expected at Malaga-Costa del Sol airport. This is 17.1 per cent more than in the same period of 2023. Looking forward though, Francisco Salado, president of Turismo Costa del Sol, fears that, if the drought persists and water restrictions increase, in 2024, “the quality of the destination will drop and there will be a rejection effect”.

With regard to the drought, Salado has asked the central government for, “maximum speed” in works such as the Mijas and Axarquia desalination plants and the extension of the Marbella desalination plant.

“If it doesn’t rain, it won’t be possible to fill the pools and there will be longer water cuts during the day, with inconveniences for those who live here and for visitors alike,” Salado admitted. He believes that, “if we get to summer and it hasn’t rained, we could go from the best year in history to 2024 as a year to forget”.

Are there just too many tourists?

Another question to be asked is, does tourism risk dying of success due to overcrowding? Some experts are concerned about whether the exorbitant growth of recent years is sustainable and even desirable due to problems in some saturated destinations.

In the midst of good results and with expectations still rising for 2024, the sector itself and the authorities are sending out warning messages about the need to control this overflowing growth to avoid the saturation of some destinations and to mitigate the social rejection that is beginning to be detected due to the problems of coexistence caused by overcrowding.

The gentrification of many areas of large cities, the expulsion of the resident population from neighbourhoods taken over by tourism, the loss of shops and services for local residents replaced by others focused on tourists, problems of coexistence, the increase in rent and the price of property. These are all issues that can be blamed on the rise in tourist numbers.

The big tourism companies in the country are not hiding their concern and are calling for reflection. “There is no need to grow for the sake of growth when there are already destinations that are already suffering from overcrowding. It may be economically feasible, but it may be socially undesirable,” José Luis Zoreda, vice-president of Exceltur, told El Periódico de España.

Exceltur, which represents several of Spain’s major hotel companies, also highlights the proliferation of illegal tourist flats as the main cause of the problems of coexistence with the resident population and as the main focus of the housing and gentrification problems in some areas.

The search for solutions

These concerns and the search for solutions will be the central theme of the International Tourism Fair (Fitur), which is being held in Madrid starting on January 24. The debate is not new, the alarm bells have been ringing for years, warning of the need to revise the Spanish tourism model so that it is not necessary for more tourists to come to earn more. This debate is now very much in the spotlight given the continued problem of drought on the Costa del Sol.

The government advocates as a way to mitigate the overcrowding of some areas and avoid tourism-phobia to advance ‘deseasonalisation’: extending the seasons beyond the summer and attracting tourists with greater spending power.

The message of focusing on more quality and not only on more tourists is also part of the government’s strategy. The Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, noted the need to, “govern tourism” to avoid, “problems of coexistence” with the resident population, although he also said that, “It is better to manage the challenges and problems of success than not to have that success”.