Malaga - Analysis of Tourists

Tourism in andalucia

TOURISTS - STATISTICS

Based on statistical data released by La Opinion de Malaga (2017) in the first quarter of 2017 over 5,106,000 tourists visited the region of Andalucia, 29.4% of them visited the province of Malaga. As shown in the Figure 1 most of the visitors come from within Spain (almost 60%). Tourists from within the region spent on average 54 euros per day, compared to 91 euros spent by other tourists. Vast majority of tourists visited the region for holidays, 13% visited friends or relatives, and only 1% had a business purpose. In the first quarter of 2017. The average stay was was 7.8 days, 2% less than in the year before.  

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Based on data from 2009 (Fig 2) (Góngora Tamborero, 2010) around 2/3 of visitors were between 30 and 65 years old.

This data indicates that the oldest age group (65+) is underrepresented (12% of tourists, compared to 18% of Spanish population and 19.1% of population in European Union). Also only 8% of tourists are under 18 years old, compared to over 15% of population under 14 in Spain and EU at the time (CIA, 2010).

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Most tourists visiting Andalucia were occupied (75%), over 20% of visitors were retired. 8.2% of tourists declared to have a high income – over 2% more than an average tourist in Spain. Andalucia’s tourists had one of the highest education level in Spain – behind only Madrid and Catalonia (Góngora Tamborero, 2010).

Malaga is one of the least impacted by seasonality destinations in Spain. Between November and February 2014 a total of 515,525 overnight stays were booked. That is 14.5% more than in the same time period in 2013. The overall difference in Malaga between the best and the worst months is less than 40%, whereas other Spanish cities often record over 60% difference (Malaga Tourismo, 2014).

POTENTIAL MARKETS

One of the ways in which Malaga could open itself to new markets is by increasing popularity of short city breaks. Malaga is already popular across Spanish people – and short breaks are taken mostly domestically. They are also less seasonal, which could further help Malaga with an issue of seasonality (that currently has, as previously mentioned, a 40% difference between best and worst months.) (Davidson, 1999). Tourists that go on city breaks expect a higher quality of service and the tourism product, but they are also willing to pay higher prices (Kazakov, 2000). Currently tourists from within the region spend considerably less than other tourists, thus encouraging them to take short city breaks could increase the spending.

Another market that could be targeted by Malaga is business tourism. Currently very few tourists come to Malaga for business purposes (around 1%, as previously mentioned). Business tourism is a lucrative sector, although very competitive (Haven-Tang, Jones & Webb, 2007). Malaga would have to compete with already established Spanish business destinations like Madrid. 15% of Madrid’s visitors come for business purposes and the city hosts 90% of head offices of the major Spanish companies (New European Economy, 2013). However, the prospect of bringing more business tourists could mean more upper-class international visitors that are willing to spend more money in Malaga.