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Date Published: 01/11/2023

British tourists continue to lead the way in the Costa del Sol

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The British tourist market in Malaga this summer has blasted through 2022 figures

British tourists continue to lead the way in the Costa del Sol

Malaga continues to be a favourite spot for visiting Britons and while the enormous number of visitors reached in 2019 has yet to be surpassed, UK tourist figures continue to rise. This is according to Costa del Sol Tourism, which reported this week that Malaga welcomed 821,907 guests throughout 2023 and leads the British market in Andalucia.

While 2019 was a year for the history books, the number of Brits descending on the region has still grown by a respectable 8.3% compared to 2022.

In terms of overnight stays, 4,252,739 have been registered so far, which represents an increase of almost 6% on last year; however, it’s still 10% behind pre-pandemic 2019. Likewise, a surge has also been observed in the arrival of UK holidaymakers landing at Malaga airport: between January and August, almost two million travellers arrived in the Costa del Sol by air, a 12% jump on 2022 but 10.7% lower than 2019.

In fact, Malaga airport is now the third most popular in Spain with the British, behind only the Balearic Islands and Alicante. On the other hand, the Costa del Sol aerodrome has beaten out Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Barcelona, Gerona and Madrid to make the top three. According to Costa del Sol Tourism, the airport is all the more “competitive” since operating 17 flights to and from the UK, including London, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham.

Looking at the broader picture, Malaga has cornered an incredible 70.3% of all English visitors to Andalucia and 9.3% to Spain as a whole, and 88.3% of all arrivals at Malaga Airport are now British.

Going forward, the expert is confident that the Costa del Sol will reclaim even more of the UK market: "In 2024 we will be at the 2019 data,” he said, “just as we have already achieved with the German market."

Also of interest: Two million British tourists push Alicante Airport past another record

Image: Archive

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