Laurence Dollimore
‘CHEAP’ tourists and crime are causing a drop in sales in upmarket Puerto Banus, local workers have claimed.
In an extraordinary broadside, workers in designer stores have blasted this year’s visitors, who they say are of ‘low quality’ and tend to ‘look more and buy less.’
Speaking to Malaga Hoy, they called on the local government to clean up the port and create new events to attract more families.
Versace sales assistant Nawar Ahmat told the paper that Banus ‘is not a friendly place’ for families at night due to the existence of ‘drugs, prostitution and fights.’
Maria Jose Minguez, a shop assistant at designer outlet Elices, added: “The economic level has dropped in Puerto Banus, there are bars and cars, nothing more.”
She said sales are okay but nothing like the years before the Covid pandemic.
Her colleague added: “There are a type of tourist who are a little cheaper, who constantly ask for discounts
“Tourists do not come with the profile they used to… people do more looking (than buying).”
Meanwhile outlet worker Fatima Chantal said the atmosphere of the port, with ‘naked women on the street’, gives a bad image for family tourism, particularly wealthy Arabs.
She believes the area has lost up to 20% of its high-paying clientele this year.
Ruben, from the clothes store Own Style, said there are ‘a lot of people’ but that ‘they are not spending as much as other years.’
One business owner who asked to remain anonymous said the people visiting are ‘cheap’ and not of a ‘high level’, complaining that they often ask for discounts.
He claimed Marbella is being discredited due to ‘thefts, beggars, pickpockets, cheap prostitution and fakes’ of luxury brands, adding that his sales will be down by 30% this year.
The Loro Piana store was more optimistic, insisting its sales had grown by 25-30% this year.
Store employee Concha said the port ‘is full of Arabs, like every summer’ and claimed there is ‘a desire to spend.’
