The councillor for Tourism, José Carlos Martín (Cs), announced this morning that in the middle of the summer the number of visits by national tourists to the municipal Tourism offices have grown by 68 percent compared to last year. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us to get to the numbers reached before the pandemic, but these figures are very significant, since they show that our destination is attracting the attention of the local visitor who, at the moment, are what we are focusing on, in the short term, to recover the economic activity of the sector”, pointed out the councillor.

Thus, Spanish visitors have tripled in June and the first half of July 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. “With regard to international tourists, growth is very slow, but it is taking place. This year we have 9 percent more British as well as 5 percent more Germans and French. We trust that the good rate of vaccination and the promotional actions that we are already carrying out outside our borders will help us to receive more foreign visits", says Martín, who added: "the department is already working in the medium and long term also to strengthen our industry and, proof of this, is the 'virtual tour' as a guide prepared by the Local Council to offer tour operators an audio-visual business card so that they can know what they are going to find if they choose to travel to our city”. The initiative is especially focused on Asians and is translated into English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and Korean, in addition, it is also offered in Spanish.

Hotel occupancy

In the same way, although with caution due to the pandemic situation, the councillor has offered the local hotel occupancy data that the Town Hall has recorded. “Far from other seasons, many of our accommodations have been closed in June and the average for that month with the first half of July amounts to 45 percent occupancy. The forecasts are more encouraging for the second fortnight since, even, three of our hotels exceed 75 percent of reservations”, asserts the councillor.

Martín has also reported that "for August, reliable data cannot yet be handled, since visitors after the pandemic make their reservations with very little time in advance", to which he added: "from the local Administration we hope that the advertising campaigns and the effort we have made from the department bear fruit and we can continue to grow”.

Promotion campaign

'Mijas, a safe outdoor destination', is the slogan behind this season's campaign, in which the Local Council has emphasized the segment most linked to nature (trails through the mountains, Coastal Path, golf and Beach). "We are fortunate to have a municipality with a wide range of varieties and tourist offers, so we have been able to adapt in a pioneering manner to the new tastes of travellers, who mainly seek experiences linked to the ecosystem and without crowds", added Martín.

Finally, the councillor recalled that the municipality has grown 69 percent in searches on ‘eBooking’ (one of the largest and busiest accommodation and travel websites in the world). “We are the Andalusian destination that has grown the most this year. Mijas generates interest among the potential public to visit us and that is very good news. We cannot start to celebrate yet, but we can continue working from the Public Administration together with our business persons so that the trend continues upwards and we recover one of our main industries”, concluded Martín.

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