A record-breaking year for Spain… and the Costa del Sol’s got plenty to shout about too!

For decades, Spain earned its living – and a very good one at that – from the real estate and tourism industries. Because of its world-class infrastructure, enviable climate and lifestyle, plus easy accessibility to Northern Europe, and actually the rest of the world too, at VIVA we’ve always said the Costa del Sol property market would be the first to bounce back, and alongside it of course, the region’s other major earner – tourism. And we’ve been proved right!

Let’s start with real estate. According to Taylor Wimpey España’s sales director Mark Pritchard, “property sales increased on the Costa del Sol by 52 per cent in September compared to 2011, while across Spain as a whole, sales jumped by 22 per cent.”

For our own part, at VIVA, just last month we recorded our highest number of both property viewings and property sales for getting on for nearly four years, while in September, demand for Spanish properties reached an all-time high, accounting for one in five enquiries on Britain’s leading real estate portal, TheMoveChannel.com.

Spain has just had its best ever summer with almost 21.6 million visitors between June and August 2012.

As for tourism, Spain has just had its best ever summer with almost 21.6 million visitors between June and August, while official forecasts predict that 2012 will be the country’s second best year of all time with 58.1 million holidaymakers – not that far short of the 58.6 million who visited in 2007.

According to the Ministry of Industry, foreign tourists visiting Spain during the first nine months of this year spent €45,106 million – up 7.2 per cent on 2011 – with Britons alone accounting for €9,221 million, an increase of 5 per cent.

Elías Bendodo, president of the Costa del Sol Tourist Board, also confirms that in Málaga, the number of holidaymakers this summer rose by 1.8 per cent to almost 5,000,000, whose total spend increased by 7.7 per cent compared to 2011, to earn the province €3,700 million. “A very positive summer in general,” he says, “in which the Costa del Sol has demonstrated its leading role in the international arena.”

Further good news, hot off the press on Wednesday, is that 2,900 new companies have been constituted in the province of Málaga to date this year, that’s more than anywhere else in Andalucía.

Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport has just been named 'Best Station of the Year 2011' by Swiss International Airlines.

Then, just yesterday, Swiss International Airlines has named the Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport ‘Station of the Year 2011’ in recognition of the fact that in terms of the quality of its passenger services, of all the airports that the aviation company flies to,  it’s the best in Europe.

So could it possibly mean that this is the start of a new beginning? Well, it certainly looks that way!