Malaga, one of the most popular cities to see in the New Year

Pilar Martínez

Monday, 2 January 2023, 12:15 | Updated 12:39h.

Malaga city has become one of the most popular places to spend New Year’s Eve, and most hotels had high occupancy rates last weekend, more so than at the same time of year in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

The Costa del Sol hotel association Aehcos said that between 23 and 26 December hotels in the city were 56% full on average, but that the figure rose to an average of 80% for New Year. Estimates from Malaga city hall, however, show an occupancy rate of 93% in local hotels last weekend.

The situation for Malaga province as a whole was different, with Aehcos anticipating that the occupancy figures will be lower than in 2019 at an average of 52.1% in December.

For the period 23 to 26 December the association estimates an occupancy rate of 60.73% (two points lower than three years previously) and only 73% on average over the New Year weekend compared with 84.45% in 2019.

“Although in some months reservations have been higher than before the pandemic, there is still a way to go to get back to 2019 levels. Some hotels are closed or have few reservations at present, and there is concern in the sector because costs are rising so much,” said José Luque, president of Aehcos.

The most popular destinations in the province for the New Year weekend proved to be Malaga city, Ronda and Nerja.

Meanwhile the Aena airports authority has said the number of flights at Malaga over Christmas increased by one per cent compared with 2019-2020, and between 20 December and 10 January a total of 6,676 were scheduled.