The Mijas Town Hall has made a big data tool available to tourism businesses, allowing them to monitor up to 19 sector indicators and their trends in real time, allowing them to improve and adapt their offering to meet demand. The mayoress, Ana Mata (PP), presented this tourism intelligence resource on Wednesday 15th at the third meeting of Mijas Lab, alongside the councillor for Tourism, Francisco Jerez (Vox), at a meeting held at El Capricho beach bar. 

The tool, which can be accessed via the mijas.es website, has been developed by Turismo y Planificación Costa del Sol, a body under the Malaga Provincial Council. It provides data on aspects such as accommodation supply, tourist density in the area, hotel prices, employment, tourism businesses and forecasts for arrivals at Malaga Airport, among others. “The aim is to start utilising this essential information to understand the situation and set targets for the different tourist seasons”, said Mata. This data is updated weekly. 

 

The director of Tourism Analysis and Intelligence at Turismo y Planificación Costa del Sol, Rafael Fuentes, outlined the benefits of having a tool such as this, which is now available to all tourism business owners in the municipality. Access, however, is open to the public. 

Opposition to the new Coastal Regulations  

Meanwhile, the Mijas Lab - Tourism Cluster discussed the new General Coastal Regulations proposed by the Spanish Government, which could significantly alter their operations, as they aim to introduce changes regarding concessions, their area – which would be reduced – and operating extensions. In this regard, Ana Mata pointed out that this mainly affects “those beach bars that are only open in summer, the ones that are set up and taken down. We have quite a few in our municipality and, to be honest, when you’re working to ensure that tourism and the beach can be enjoyed all year round, this sort of measure ends up harming a sector in which many families make a living from these establishments”. 

Security

Furthermore, the meeting was attended by representatives from the Local Police and the Civil Guard, who spoke at the request of business owners regarding the policing of tourist areas, the vicinity of golf courses and the municipality’s hotels. On this point, Jerez noted that “we have been able to bring in the Civil Guard and the Local Police because the golf course sector is calling for greater security”.

 

Overcoming seasonality 

Mijas Lab also put forward initiatives aimed at overcoming seasonality. An increasing number of establishments in the sector are now operating all year round. The meeting also provided an opportunity to examine the sector’s figures for this season. The representative of the Costa del Sol Hotel Entrepreneurs Association (Aehcos) in Mijas, Juan Miguel Marcos, said that “in summer, hotel occupancy is forecast to be above 90 per cent”.

 

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