Hotel prices on the Costa del Sol in July were the most expensive ever

It was a record July for hotels on the Costa del Sol, with more tourists, more stays, more employment, higher prices, and a surge in profits compared to the previous best July in 2019. According to the INE, hotels in the Costa del Sol had 3% more bookings than before the pandemic, with more visitors choosing the region, despite the prices being the highest ever.

The average cost last month of a night's stay in a hotel in Malaga province, including the Costa del Sol, was 167 euros, 24.5% more than before the pandemic and 5% more than last year. This figure is also higher than the national and Andalusian regional averages.

The data for the overall number of visitors also confirms that the south coast's pulling power is stronger than ever. Local hotels welcomed 693,528 guests in July, generating 2.58 million overnight stays, of which more than 1.7 million were made by foreign tourists. The figure proves that international tourism has fully recovered after the pandemic, beating July 2019.

Hotel occupancy, the figure that measures how many of the hotel rooms available have been sold, was slightly down this July compared to 2019, however; there are now more hotels than before the pandemic. The occupancy was 80.9% in July this year compared to 81.6% in July 2019.

The Association of Hoteliers of the Costa del Sol (AEHCOS) expects hotel rooms in August to be over 86% full, after upping their forecast at the end of July by 2.5 percentage points. However, it said, that figure will be 2% below last year's record and considerably lower than in 2019, when it reached 89.7%.

International tourism recovery.
"International tourism, which makes up 60% of demand in August, has recovered to a great extent compared to 2022, while national tourism has dropped in contrast to 2021 and 2022," the association said.

The Costa del Sol continues to lead tourist activity in Andalucía, accounting for almost 39% of the total number of overnight stays in the region's eight provinces. Andalusian hotels welcomed 2.1 million guests, an increase of 2.3% compared to the same month in 2022.

The regional Ministry of Tourism said that "once again the growth of the foreign market is mainly responsible for these increases, with an increase of 11.2% in international visitors and 11.4% more overnight stays."

The regional minister for Tourism, Arturo Bernal, explained that the figures show Andalucía "continues with strong growth, supported especially by the recovery of the international markets".

He highlighted that, from January to July this year, Andalucía's hotels received a total of 11.3 million visitors and 30.2 million overnight stays representing increases over the previous year of 9% and 8.7%, respectively.

Forecasts from the Andalucía regional government are for overnight stays to rise by 3.8% this August, 4.1% in September and 4.4% in October. These expectations would mean a total of 48.5 million stays in Andalusian hotels in the period from January to October, 6.9% more than in the first 10 months of 2022.