This week, the Tourism Council took stock of both the hotel occupancy rates and the number of visitors this summer. The figures collected are satisfactory, according to the head of this department, councillor José Carlos Martín (Cs), who has estimated the hotel occupancy in August at around 74% and has highlighted the increase in national tourism, which this year represented 72%; and has “saved the summer in Mijas”, according to municipal sources. “Most have been families with children and there is a curious fact, since comparing it with the year 2019, that is, before the pandemic, the tourism proceeding from Spain has increased by a percentage of 33 points from then until now”, added Martín. National tourism has been followed by the British, although in percentages that were lower than usual, going from 17% in 2019 to 9% this year. The third place in the ranking is occupied by French tourism, with a percentage of 5% compared to 10% in 2019, and the fourth place is for tourists from the Benelux. This decrease in European tourism in percentage points, together with those of Asian tourism, which has been practically nil this year, have led to an increase in national tourism, according to the councillor for Tourism. The number of international visitors decreased due to the ‘traffic lights’, the rate of vaccination and the different restrictions, pointed out municipal sources. “Given this data, we do have to say that in September we noticed an increase in British tourists followed by French tourists, and we hope that these markets will also recover”, said Martín. Regarding hotel occupancy, the councillor added that the figures have met the expectations that the Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol (Aehcos) had advanced for August: “we have had an occupancy of around 74%. We still do not have the data for the month of September, but it has also seen important occupation levels and if we compare July with August this year, we can see an increase by approximately 17 percentage points, from 57% occupancy in July to 74% that we had in August”.

 

Less sanitary restrictions

The decrease in restrictions is what has made this increase possible, just as it has allowed the rise in the number of people who have visited the Mijas Tourist Office. “In August, we had 57.79% more visitors to our Tourist Office compared to last year, a figure that was repeated in September, while in July it was 47%”.

Promotion of Mijas

In Paris

Mijas is present, from Tuesday, October 5th, at the Internacional French Travel Market Paris. The IFTM Top Resa, which celebrates 42 editions this year, will conclude this Friday 8th. In it, the municipality has presented the slogan ‘Mijas, a safe outdoor destination’ to highlight a wide, familiar and, above all, safe tourist offer. The department has, therefore, placed special emphasis on sun and beach, nature and golf, giving priority to open-air spaces and in contact with the local environment in order to provide greater confidence to visitors. Mijas has 12 kilometres of coastline, 12 golf courses, a coastal path, and a new network of trails in the Sierra de Mijas,  and the ITFM is a stage on which to portray these attractions, update and exchange impressions with professionals in the sector. “Now is the time to show the great natural attraction that we have to offer in our municipality with which visitors, both national and international, end up falling in love”, said the councillor for Tourism, José Carlos Martín (Cs). “We are following our campaign to try to recover the markets sending out tourism, in this case, the French, which for us is very important because it is the third in number of visitors for us”, said the councillor. The fact is that Mijas is an ideal destination for French tourism, whose profile “adapts very well” to what the municipality offers. “It is a profile of medium to medium-high purchasing power visitors, who enjoy long stays when coming to our municipality and, precisely for this reason, we have to try to recover that influx”, concluded the councillor.

In the United Kingdom

Mijas prepares to disembark from October 18th to 21st at the International Golf Travel Market (IGTM) in the United Kingdom, where it will land with a new brand to promote which unites the 12 golf courses in the municipality, as announced by the councillors for Tourism and Sports in the Mijas Town Hall, José Carlos Martín (Cs) and Andrés Ruiz (Cs), respectively. Both highlighted the participation of Mijas in this fair, which is one of the main travel events in the world of golf. “During our stay we are going to show all our offers in order to attract the attention of tour operators and potential tourists. Our golf courses are our best allies for us to become the main destination for this sport that boosts our local economy and, above all, breaks the seasonality and creates jobs”, stated Martín. On the other hand, Ruiz highlighted that  we must “promote golf on the sport and tourist level and what better place than in an event of such importance as the IGTM”. “Tourism and sport united in a unique blend to be able to relaunch this segment that, in addition, responds to the preferences of post-pandemic travelers by being an outdoor physical activity with all the security measures”. Mijas will boast its new brand and slogan for the golf sector at the IGTM, being the first municipal ‘branding’ in Andalusia, which includes all the businesses in this sector in the same municipality. It should be noted that there are other brands representing specific golf courses or several cities that come together to create a joint offer, but the city of Mijas is the first to do so individually.

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