Marbella's tourism sector calls for more affordable housing to attract staff

At the CIT lunch professionals also demanded a stabilisation plan for the beaches and requested aid for the toll road in order to help employees get to and from work ahead of the high tourist season

Emma Pérez-Romera

Marbella

Friday, 28 March 2025, 20:23

The association of business leaders and professionals, CIT Marbella, held its members' lunch on Thursday 27 March at the refurbished Kimpton Los Monteros Hotel in Marbella. The town's mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, expressed her optimism about the medium and long-term future of Marbella in front of the 250 attendees.

"I would like to thank the CIT for the opportunity to analyse the situation we have in Marbella, in my opinion a great moment to see what our immediate future is, to interpret together the data of the magnificent opportunity that Marbella has, being positioned as one of the destinations where there is still room for business growth and the confidence and demand that is being generated around the town. Without being triumphalist but realistic, an optimistic message about the town's immediate future," Muñoz said.

In 2007, the year in which Ángeles Muñoz became mayor, the budget did not reach 200 million euros "and we were immersed in a situation of institutional crisis and economic bankruptcy without having guaranteed public services. Now we have a budget of over 400 million euros and we once again have a town with the best economic data for growth, job creation, business creation, an increase in the number of entrepreneurs and self-employed, the best data for tourist occupation, new projects being developed and all of this in conjunction with the business community, seeing all this from a global point of view and understanding tourism as increasingly international", said Muñoz.

The mayor pointed to Marbella's entrepreneurs as the architects of these positive results. "In view of all the economic reports available to us and having expert opinions, we find ourselves with a margin for growth that we have to take advantage of. Because it has been you who, in the last five years, have made a hotel investment of more than 300 million euros and it has also been you, the tourism entrepreneurs, who have always been the first to bet on Marbella and the first to believe in the tourist destination that is Marbella."

The president of CIT, Juan José González, thanked the mayor for her words and congratulated all those present for "the very good data on tourist occupancy, employment development and the good forecasts for Easter and summer". He went on to say, "We also congratulate ourselves on the notable success of the special security plans carried out by the state security forces, something that can be felt in every corner of the town and which is fundamental for the development of tourism and the good image of Marbella."

González said that there are three challenges facing employers in the town: the need to create new affordable housing, improve transport and connections for workers and to make it easier for companies to recruit skilled labour, which has been difficult in recent years.

The second challenge is to look further into solutions that help workers commute, including making it easier to use the AP-7 toll road. "We need to look more deeply into solutions that at least involve subsidising motorway fees, especially during the high tourist season, a solution that would not be a panacea but would help to alleviate the situation somewhat," he said.

The third challenge he set out is the development of a comprehensive medium and long-term plan to stabilise Marbella's beaches: "We demand institutional initiatives that help to speed up projects to this end," González said.

The event ended with a lunch and a question-and-answer session with the mayor.

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