The University of Malaga (UMA) is immersed in the study and analysis of the reality of tourism in Mijas for the renewal of the Strategic Tourism Plan for Mijas, so that it covers the period from 2023 to 2027. This was made public on Monday 6th by the first deputy mayor of the municipality and councillor responsible for the area, José Carlos Martín (Cs), who announced that “the work will soon begin with the phase of meetings and direct contacts with the various professionals in the sector along with the public administration to make this field study of what is the current and real situation, as well as to hear proposals from the protagonists of the sector”. The tourism plan, which began in 2018 and is now coming to an end, has, according to the Mijas government team, “produced important results” during these years, but, as Martín pointed out, “it has to be updated again” and more so after the years of the Covid pandemic “to put into context its lines of action for the times to come” and “the world situation has changed and the priorities are now different or, at least, are more nuanced”. Even so, explained the local government in a statement, “the municipality knew how to adapt to these complicated circumstances and was a pioneer at national level in terms of health”, because, in the words of the councillor, “it quickly and effectively implemented all possible health measures to combat the coronavirus and make Mijas a totally safe destination”.

An innovative plan to be updated In 2017 the local government of the Mijas Town Hall commissioned the Málaga University (UMA) with this Strategic Tourism Plan, with which a line of action was developed to generate a guide to promote the destination of our town. Thanks to this, its offer has been managed and defined ways of financing and projection of products and promotions that, in the case of Mijas, added to the three main sectors, sun and beach, Mediterranean white village and golf, four other segments that the department for Tourism has been exploring over the years: gastronomy, crafts, nature and amateur and professional sport. In order to continue on this path of growth and projection, and to update this plan which has been so successful, councillor for Tourism, José Carlos Martín, held a meeting with the director of the University Institute of Research and Tourism Intelligence and Innovation of the UMA, Enrique Navarro, and the project’s drafting team to define the future lines of action in the new context of the global sector. These are the first steps to follow to renew the plan, since “following these guidelines, the offer provided by  Mijas has found a better fit with promotional campaigns closer to what the potential tourist is looking for” and, in this way, “we have had a more prominent and outstanding presence in high-visibility events such as the various world tourism fairs, The councillor assured that “the department will continue to work in this line under the premises advised by the UMA in the renewal of the plan”.

With the new ways of travelling in mind, the update of this Strategic Plan for Tourism in Mijas will continue to work in the short, medium and long term for the revaluation of the Mijas offer and its national and international projection as one of the most complete destinations on the Costa del Sol. “The first plan has proved to be effective in combating the endemic ills of the sector in the province, such as seasonality”, said Martin, “while we are committed to involving stakeholders and tourism experts with greater relevance and collaboration in defining what we need to continue to grow”. Sustainability, the development of a single destination management system linking the complete offer that makes Mijas a strong pole of attraction, the use of resources or synergy with other destinations, are some of the aspects that were taken into account when developing the first tourism plan for Mijas and that will continue to be the basis for the second, but “without ever losing sight of the fact that the situation has changed and, therefore, we are going to study in depth how these changes affect us and how we can adapt our products to be even more attractive to our future visitors”, concluded the councillor.

Share it with this link: https://mijasint.com/?a=26578