Jorge Hinojosa
The Costa’s del Sol hoteliers association Aehcos predicts that July of this year will see more tourists than the same period of 2019.
“The data has improved remarkably over what was expected, we thought the occupancy would be around 78%,” Jose Luque, the director of the hoteliers association in Costa del Sol told the Olive Press.
According to the same data, hotels in July had an occupancy of 85%, surpassing 2019 levels when the occupancy was 84%.
Despite there being more tourists, Luque claimed hotel owners made less profit this year than in 2019 as a consequence of soaring electricity costs.
The data looks especially healthy when compared to the occupancy in July 2020 where only 58% of hotels were occupied on the Costa del Sol.
However, the association predicts that there will be a slow down in August with an occupancy of 82% – 8 percentage points down on 2019 levels.
The most booked place in Spain’s Costa del Sol for holidays in July is Marbella with a 91% occupancy rate followed by Torremolinos at 89%.
AEHCOS predicted 70% of tourism on the Costa del Sol would be from foreigners, but the figure is likely to be around 60%, as more Spaniards flock to this corner of the country.
In addition, Luque said international tourists have been impacted by widespread industrial action at Ryanair and Easyjet, Europe’s two largest budget airlines.
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