Malaga Airport News Blog about Malaga Airport (AGP)

Turespaña assure that the Russian operators estimate that 72% of the travellers choose Malaga

The Costa del Sol gains ground in the awakening of Russian tourism towards Spain. In the touristic launching of this market, after the speeding up of the visa proceedings, Malaga province has become the second Spanish destination in which the arrival of travellers from Russia has most grown. According to the figures provided by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade,  the Russian market’s touristic season has closed this year with a 72% increase in arrivals at the Costa del Sol, even surpassing the evolution experienced by the Costa Brava, that is usually the priority destination of these travellers. Only Mallorca, with a 79% rise, surpasses the results obtained in the province based on the figures provided by the main Slavic operators to the central government.

Rising prices
These tour groups also pointed out that the average price of the packages commercialised towards Spain have increased by 6%, although this has not affected the bookings.

The Ministry in charge of the Tourism stated that during the first nine months of the year, the issuance of visas increased by 58.5% compared to the same period. Only in the month of September, the Spanish Consulate in Moscow issued 68.500 permits, which meant an increase of almost 48 points.

Turespaña highlighted that this rise of Russian travellers has also meant an increase of air connections. In this sense, they pointed out that this year 25 Russian cities operated direct flights to Spain. Malaga even maintains, during the winter season, a direct route to and from Moscow with the airline company Aeroflot.

The foresights of the General Secretary of Tourism and Trade, managed by Joan Mesquida, indicate that during 2011 Spain will double the number of Russian tourists in comparison to 2009. An upturn that will mean reaching a figure of almost a million tourists. In fact, these figures confirm that it’s a market that has just taken off and that it will maintain the upward trend for the next couple of years, period in which the amount of arriving travellers will double once again. These expectations justify that the Russian market, together with the Arab countries, will become priority objectives in the promotion plan for 2012.

Just this week the government began a campaign to promote Andalusia’s main attractions in Russia and Poland and revealed that these markets have registered high increases of both, travellers and overnight stays, in the present year, with the overnight stays in Andalusian accomodations increasing by 36% in the case of the Russian tourists and by 58% in the case of the Poles.

The Tourist board explained that between the months of January and October, 69.475 travellers from Russia that stayed in Andalusian hotels, 28.8% more than during the same period last year, made 266.430 overnight stays with an average period of 3.83 days.

To this they add that over the first ten months of the year, the hotels of the region received 91.941 tourists from Poland, 41.9% more than last year, who made 318.271 stays in Andalusian hotels with an average period of 3.46 days.

The Spanish Ministry of Development opened today the two remaining sections to complete of the so-called Hiperronda of Malaga. The said highway is born with the mission to facilitate communications between the western and eastern Costa del Sol and will also benefit all those vehicles with destination to or from Seville, Cordoba and Granada.

The new highway will permit to travel from one end of the province of Malaga to the other without having to go through the capital and, therefore, escape the usual congestions that occur in several of its access roads.

This new road map will be completed tomorrow with the opening of the toll highway Las Pedrizas, an alternative to the historic entry from the interior of the peninsula and with a far more uniform road curse and wide curves, enabling a constant maximum speed of 120km/h.

Also the tourism sector will benefit a lot from this huge step forward. On completion of the new access to Malaga airport from the western Costa del Sol and the ring road of San Pedro (Marbella), Malaga may presume a road network according to its true potential.

Strike at Malaga Maria Zambrano train station June 2011

25% of long distance trains and suburban trains in Malaga can be affected by strikes on September 29.

Union sources indicated that the strike will affect around 25% of commuter trains and long distance trains, ranging the minimum services of suburban trains in Seville, Malaga and Cadiz between 75 and 50% in peak hours and between 43 and 50% during the rest of the day.

The strikes will also affect middle-distance or regional trains and long distance trains, including high-speed trains, both day and night.

Malaga is the most popular destination for British travelers for Easter, followed by Tenerife and Alicante, according a survey of Skyscanner, indicating that Spain remains the most popular place this holiday for these tourists.

Thus, it indicates that the Spanish cities, especially those found near the sea, “have always been highly valued by British tourists.”

In fact the capital of the Costa del Sol already occupied the first position, Alicante is up three positions and Tenerife has advanced 21 positions, probably due to the protests in the Arab countries, some of which are usually popular sun destinations.

Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca also occupy prominent places in eighth and tenth place respectively.

This survey is based on flight searches for international departures from United Kingdom to travel during the Easter period.

The tourism industry welcomed the tentative agreement attained yesterday between the government and the syndicates and expects to have a good Easter week.

The tourism sector in Malaga breathed yesterday with relief when the Ministry of Development announced that has been reached a tentative agreement between the direction of Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (Aena) and the syndicates, thus have been dismissed the 22 days planned to strike at Easter, May and summer.

The notice of strike by workers of Aena had felt like a cold shower because the sector already had to overcome last year’s wildcat strike by air traffic controllers in December or the eruption of a volcano in Iceland in April.