The future is amazing...

Record numbers of visitors to Spain… I have to admit I get carried away from time to time, I was just going to comment in this post on the detail of tourist stats below. But then I thought back about what such reports have always meant and then delivered for the future, when I have read the ones produced during the past 20 years. Well forgive me, I have seen it before, and then I get excited.

According to a Frontursurvey for the Institute of Tourism Studies…

it’s nice to report that Spain broke an all-time visitor record with 7.64 million tourists arriving in August this year, and furthermore, that this is the highest recorded figure for international visitors since the Frontur stats were introduced in 1995.

And now our own Costa del Sol also looks forward to many more records not just being broken, but smashed apart in the coming few years, now that the fabulous new Málaga airport is nearing the immensely significant opening of its second runway; and with its vast and hugely improved airport infrastructure already in place and fully operational.

Take a look to the future…

We know the world and European economies are in crisis, but with actual increases in tourists and residential buyers moving to Spain, we take great comfort that the Costa del Sol remains as the clear and outstanding number one holiday home destination of choice above all others.

For those who currently own a home in Spain, and particularly on the Costa del Sol – and for those who are looking to do so in the future – it is important of course to recognise that economic and property cycles have their ups and their downs. Of course they do. But the underlying trends and the continued long-term development plans for the area have always been – and will remain into the foreseeable future – far ahead of any other location in Europe.

Vastly increased visitors guaranteed…

Málaga airport is about to explode with traffic. It seems like only yesterday we saw a yearly figure of 4 million visitors increase to 6 million, and we none of us could believe it, when such a short time ago what was then the new Picasso terminal, doubled that figure to 12 million.

With the new airport now spectacularly increased by four times the size, to become the biggest non hub airport in Europe, we now have the ability to receive 20 million visitors a year. And with the talk of an eventual 30 million, this is the kind of news that underpins everyone’s future on our beautiful Coast.

You have to look ahead…

Economies need growth. Regions need investment. Most of all, potential needs to be fulfilled. These things will occur over time. As that happens there are 101 reasons why our Coast will outperform not only the rest of Spain in the coming years, but will continue its inexorable growth to become the California of Europe.

We have everything we need and none of the issues that eventually compromise so many other areas across the globe. Think how so many other locations suffer from an incredible range of worrisome issues, from terrible natural disasters, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis… to extreme political instability. And from insufficient planning, resources and infrastructure, to the threat of uprising religious fundamentalism; and from horrific localised poverty literally on the doorstep… to something so simple yet so incredibly important as the time and travelling distance from home.

Yesterday is already history… 

Our Coast has it all, with now a 50-year history of tourism and residential development, and thank goodness has the capacity with its recent expansion across the past 15 years to handle those 20 million visitors. It is a fact that in a year or two more, they will have to build and expand yet again to meet the expectations of the 30 million.

The Frontur statistics are real nice to see and hear, for Spain in general. But watch out for the Costa del Sol in particular. It naturally has had moments where it has temporarily flat-lined in expansion over the past 50 years – the last few years are a case in point – but the coming years will see an altogether new explosion. Nowhere in Europe or elsewhere in the world, has anything like the potential, or the already in place, finished and functioning infrastructure and development to meet such a demand.

If you own a home, be happy and enjoy. Your decision to buy was the best you could have ever made. Today’s economic problems will inevitably pass; rest assured the future is yours.