More than 60% of hotel beds in Malaga province are in the four-star, five-star or Grand Luxury category.

This means that Malaga has 56,513 top category vacancies, according to data for the month of June provided by the Junta de Andalucia Provincial Tourism Delegation. In 1993, when Malaga saw a ‘tourism crisis’, the sector learned that if they wanted to keep the visitors coming, they needed to update their facilities and invest in quality.

In the past three years alone, €30 million has been spent on rejuvenating hotel facilities and improving the hotels’ category, leading the area to have one of the best offers of high category hotels in the country. Since June last year, seven new hotels have opened on the Costa del Sol, four of which are four and five-star category.

Despite the extensive offer for those who can afford it, Malaga is open to all budgets and has more than 32,200 beds in other categories. 27%  of the hotels in Andalucia are in Malaga Province and 36% of the hotel beds. Last year, the province received 15.2 million of the total of 40 million overnight stays in the region, more than double its nearest contender, Cadiz.

The average occupancy levels in Malaga are also better than those for the rest of Andalucia, which are at 45 per cent. Plus, the sector doesn’t plan to stop now, and there are four five-star hotels planned in Antequera, Almogia, Velez-Malaga and Estepona, as well as 11 four-star hotels, seven three-star hotels, one two-star and three one-star, three guesthouses and four hostels.