Marbella - where the Nations Unite

Marbella has long been known as the place where the nations unite - and this month it was praised again by the United Nations!

The leader of the UN World Tourism Organisation, Taleb Rifai, visited Malaga earlier this month and took part in a conference which was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic Malaga Palacio hotel. The UN body responsible for global tourism policies has close connection to Spain as the UN WTO headquarters are in Madrid.

During the event, the UN WTO leader spoke of the economic potential in the Costa del Sol and the promising future that lies ahead of it. The number of visitors to the “Coast of the Sun” has grown significantly in the last decade - there has been a 300-fold increase in visits to Malaga alone. Headcount has increased from 4,000 visitors in 2004 to 1.2 million in 2015. As a result, “2015 was the best year in the Costa del Sol with 10.5 million visitors, an economic impact of €11.5 million and more than 140,000 jobs created”.

“The Costa del Sol has positioned itself as the third busiest coastal tourism area of Spain in terms of visitors and the fourth in volume of overnight stays, behind only Barcelona, and the islands of Mallorca and Tenerife,” said the president of Costa del Sol Tourism, Elías Bendodo.

The Costa del Sol continues to perform well economically and there are 6.4 per cent more new jobs than in 2014 with 143,000 people now employed in the tourism sector. Continuing the good news, Intu, a British developer, has recently announced that it is building 75,000 sq m shopping centre in the province of Malaga which will bring another 4,000 jobs after its completion. Obviously, all of these workers need homes - and so the long term rental market is performing exceptionally well for investors.

Malaga is now the leading province on the Mediterranean coast of Spain economically, in terms of infrastructure, in all the quality of life analyses; and it remains one of the safest places in Europe at the moment and a very attractive year-round resort.

What´s not to love?!