Andalucía braced for 30 million tourists in 2018

Andalucía has some of Spain’s best beaches, mountains, weather and historical sites – little wonder, then, that it is so popular.

The government of Andalucía – the southern Spain autonomous community that is home to the Costa del Sol – expects around 30 million tourists to visit the region in 2018.

If accurate, this figure would represent a record year for tourism for Andalucía, increasing the number of visitors that arrived in 2017 by 4.5%…

The forecast was made by Susana Díaz, president of the Junta de Andalucía, at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid. Díaz reassured visitors to the fair that not only was Andalucía happy to welcome boosted numbers, but the region is also primed and ready to handle the influx, with vast amounts of funding set aside for hotel and infrastructure upgrades throughout the year.

Blessed with exceptionally varied terrain, the warmest climate in Spain, a selection of the nation’s most stunning cities in Málaga, Seville and Granada, and most famous for the Costa del Sol, Andalucía is among the most popular parts of the country for tourists.

Majorca remains the most visited region of Spain, closely followed by Catalonia. However, unlike those two regions, Andalucía has yet to face protests from locals who are beginning to tire of tourism.

Both Barcelona and the Balearic island of Majorca have experienced vocal opposition to tourism, with the council of Catalonia imposing limits to hotel development in an effort to reduce tourist numbers in the city of Barcelona.

Díaz said that Andalucía has no such plans for any limits nor a tourist tax, stressing that the region continues to see tourism as “an opportunity, a source of wealth, employment and wellbeing”.

In 2017, Andalucía welcomed 29.5 million visitors over the course of the year, having enjoyed one of the steepest increases in tourism from 2016.