The head of tourism for Spain’s Costa del Sol has declared that almost one million euros have been earmarked to promote the region in the United Kingdom during the next financial year.
Costa del Sol tourism president Francisco Salado has insisted that “2024 will be the year of the recovery of British tourism to the levels of historic 2019”.
Alongside a promotional campaign, Mr Salado announced that airlines are laying on more flights from the UK to popular cities like Malaga.
He noted, that eight airlines will be operating flights to 17 cities in England until December.
Mr Salado said: “Travellers from the United Kingdom staying in Malaga represent 70.3 percent of those in the entire region and 9.3 percent of those in Spain.
“In terms of overnight stays, they represent 79 percent of those in Andalusia and 8.5 percent in Spain.
“And as for British arrivals at Malaga airport, they represent 88.3 percent for Andalusia and 12.5 percent of the national share.”
He emphasized that the projections for the last three months of 2023 indicate a significant rise in seat availability from the British market to Malaga, resulting in nearly 85,000 additional passengers.
Notably, with the exception of Belfast and Southampton, which reduced their flight capacity, the other cities increased their seat offerings.
London remains in the top spot, with Manchester following closely behind, as the primary cities in terms of passenger numbers.
Mr Salado explained that over 668,000 seats will be available during this period from the United Kingdom, and seven out of the eight airlines have expanded their offerings, with Wizzair being the exception.
Meanwhile, Ryanair is leading in seat availability, followed by Easyjet, Jet2.com, and British Airways.
