Turismo Costa del Sol and the Malaga City Council have joined forces to launch joint actions with the aim of promoting a combined luxury and golf product for travel agents from China.
The vice president of the Provincial Council of Malaga, Francisco Salado, and the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, respectively, have held several meetings with a group of presidents and directors of prestigious agencies in China who have spent several days in the province of Malaga on a familiarization trip.
These major agencies include C-Trip, CYTS, U Tour International Travel Service, Bravolinks, Beijing Baicheng TS, Caissa International TS, Phoenix Travel, Hytour, Citis Mice, Tongcheng Holdings, Huayuan Tours, Tuniu International TS, New Confort, Vista Travel and Ujoy Travel Service, mainly represented by the cities of Beijing and Shanghai.
The group, which was accompanied by a member of the Spanish Tourism Office (OTS) in Beijing and a companion from Tamitrip, was able to learn about the luxury accommodation on offer at the Villa Padierna Palace Hotel and golf courses such as Flamingo Golf, Club Valderrama and Finca Cortesín.
This familiarization trip, in which the Marbella City Council and Turismo Andaluz also collaborate, has also included visits to various municipalities such as Marbella and Puerto Banus and Malaga, where they were able to learn about the wide range of leisure and luxury that the destination has to offer.
Gastronomy also played an important role on this occasion, as the group of presidents and directors of these prestigious Chinese agencies had the opportunity to enjoy the gastronomy of the Santiago restaurant, Lobito de Mar by Dani García or Bodegas El Pimpi.
The Vice President of the Diputación de Málaga, Francisco Salado, said during his meeting with the Chinese representatives that he was confident that they were checking in situ “the benefits of our destination, the variety of our offer and, of course, the experience, hospitality and service provided by professionals in the tourism sector in Malaga, which not in vain have contributed to make Malaga and the Costa del Sol a world leader in tourism”.
Salado pointed out that “we have a solid position of international leadership in tourism, not only because of the number of visitors we receive, but also because of the quality of the service we provide to tourists”.
The vice president of the Provincial Council was convinced that the contacts they have had “with our destination and with the Costa del Sol Tourism team itself is the first step in a new stage of joint work that we now begin and will undoubtedly bring new successes for our destination”, as he said he was certain that “you will find in the combination of luxury and golf, shopping and gastronomy the perfect product that, no doubt, will encourage you to continue advancing in its commercialization”.
Salado pointed out that this is an essential product for the destination because it contributes to the off-season promotion of the destination in order to continue insisting on the objective of achieving better management of seasonality.
The Costa del Sol and golf
La Cosa del Sol has more than 70 golf courses, a sport that moves 900 million euros annually. It is the province with the most golf courses in the whole country, and the third in golf licenses, after Madrid and Barcelona, representing 6.7% of the total number of federated golfers, exceeding 18,000 players.
The Costa del Golf accumulates 67% of the total number of golf courses in Andalusia, spread over 16 municipalities, with Marbella, which offers 15 courses, and Mijas, which offers 12. It is followed by the Cadiz town of San Roque, which offers 9 and, with eight courses each, Benahavís and Estepona.
The average golf tourist spends more than 1,800 euros, with an average daily expenditure of 150 euros. The average stay of the golf tourist is 12.31 days, although the most common profile is the one that stays between 4 and 8 days.
In addition, they give an average score of 9.24 out of ten: an exceptional figure whose greatest guarantors are safety, human treatment and value for money. As a result, 98.7% recommend the Costa del Golf destination.
Chinese market
The vice president of Diputación pointed out that, although the number of tourists that brings the Asian country to Spain is still low, an improvement in the indicators is expected for subsequent years. “We are sure of the desirability of promoting high-level combined products such as golf and luxury to show the destination and the services that the province has to specialized agents in this segment, in order to continue positioning the Costa del Sol and Elite Collection brand in your”, said Salado.
Regarding connectivity problems, Salado expressed his willingness to work to achieve improvements in this regard.
The Chinese market is an emerging market in the province of Malaga whose main motivations are culture, shopping and gastronomy when choosing a destination for their trips, leaving the sun and beach segment in the background.
Therefore, said Salado, “we are proud that they know our varied tourism offer and products of the province, the projection of the brand Malaga – Costa del Sol as a cultural destination, gastronomy, and our possibilities as a shopping destination, as well as the extraordinary possibilities of our luxury products”.
For his part, the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, had a meeting yesterday in Alcazabilla street with the top Chinese officials, in which he explained to those present not only the potential of Malaga city as a “city of museums”, but also the enormous strength of the multi-destination offer and the “Andalusian Soul” project comprising the cities of Malaga, Granada, Cordoba and Seville for the Chinese market, being one of the priorities in the promotion of the tourist axis.
Among the main data on the profile of travelers from China is that they belong to the upper middle class, mostly men and of adult age, who make their reservations through travel agencies and with a minimum of 2 months in advance for the processing of the tourist visa.
According to the latest data China is the country with the highest tourist spending in the world, in 2016 a total of 135 million Chinese made trips abroad and spent 250 billion dollars. In 2017, eleven million Chinese visited Europe, 300,000 Spain, but only about 10,000 came to the Costa del Sol.
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