The latest official municipal figures for tourism during the summer show an overall average hotel occupancy rate of 93.8%, just 0.4% down on last year.
The Council view this as ‘positive’, especially in view of the current economic climate. They do, however, seem to acknowledge that any optimism is not shared by businesses in the tourist sector who report that the spending power of the visitors appears to have been reduced by around 50%.
From the very early days of this summer, our own observations and information received from local businesses, and not only those directly or specifically involved in tourism, have been tending to suggest a 40%-60% decrease in trade and this appears to have been borne out by the latest reports.
In the past, if you were to enquire of a Spanish business, ‘how’s it going?’, even in the slowest period the answer would be no worse than, ‘OK’, ‘so-so’ or a non-committal shrug of the shoulders. This year, for the first time, answers such as ‘bad’ or ‘disaster’ were readily forthcoming.
UK visitors accounted for 50% of tourist numbers, followed by Spain with 15% and Germany with 8%.
For the hotels, July was the best month with occupancy slightly up on last year. August was slightly down, -0.4%, but September was a dramatic 1.5% down on 2007.
Looking to the future, the Nerja Council is keen to attract more visitors from the Nordic countries.