The mayoress of Mijas and the councillor for Employment Promotion met this Tuesday with members of the Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol

 

Published: 20th November 2023

 

The mayoress of Mijas, Ana Mata (PP), together with the councillor for Promotion and Employment, Juan Carlos Maldonado (PMP), held a working meeting this Tuesday with the Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol (AEHCOS) to discuss current tourism issues and to continue defining and channelling the promotion of the municipality. The meeting took place in the Santa Ana room of the Wyndham Residences Costa del Sol complex in Mijas. Both Mata and the representatives of the group present at the meeting agreed that the collaboration between the sector and the public administration is the formula to obtain better results, so they discussed issues of great interest, such as the state of the beaches and the municipal policies to be developed by the new government team. In Mijas, there are a total of 11 hotel establishments associated with Aehcos, which means a total of 7,000 hotel beds. "We have to go hand in hand at international fairs to promote Mijas as an attractive municipality for visitors who decide to come to the Costa del Sol for its offer, not only in golf courses, beach and sun, but also, for example, in active and sustainable tourism, with the strategic project of the Coastal Path", said the mayoress, who stressed the need to "jointly promote the activities that are promoted by the Town Hall and carry out all the actions that lead to increase the number of visitors in a consensual way".  Finally, she stressed the importance of strengthening its role as a permanent holiday destination, as "the hotels in Mijas remain open all year round, which is vitally important to put an end to seasonality", said the mayoress of Mijas.

For his part, the councillor for Employment Promotion has insisted on the need "to work together and encourage synergies so that the promotion of Mijas undertaken by the Town Hall is useful for entrepreneurs to make their investment profitable and in turn benefit the people of Mijas with a greater number of jobs in the sector".

For their part, Aehcos Mijas say that this year they have achieved quite a lot, highlighting the month of October which in numbers is breaking records, and added that the goal is still to overcome seasonality. "One of the issues we are going to raise today is to reach some kind of agreement with the golf courses of Mijas to see if we can attract tourists to come not only to the Costa del Sol, but to establishments in our municipality to enjoy our golf courses", said the vice president for Mijas of Aehcos, Juan Miguel Marcos, who added that the association is working "to get the tourist to come not only in summer, but to see Mijas, the Costa del Sol, as an all year round destination.

The meeting was attended by the directors of the Mijas hotels as well as representatives of the Hotel Business Association at both local and provincial level. "What we intend is to have a first meeting with the new government team, raising issues and situations that improve the occupancy records and the economic impact of tourism activity in the municipality. Our idea as an association is that during the winter no hotel establishment closes, that is to say, activity is maintained", said Javier Hernández, executive vice-president of Aehcos. The entrepreneurs have also conveyed the importance of the staff working in the different branches of the tourism sector having extensive training, not only at a professional level, but also in terms of having a deep knowledge of the destination and the wide range of leisure, culture, sports and nature available, as well as having access to detailed and updated information on this offer. Also on the table was the need to work on the visual unification of the signage and the updating, in many cases, of the same, which would help to create a common identification in all the nuclei of the municipality, in addition to facilitating the orientation of visitors.

Renovation and modernisation 

Aehcos also has among its objectives and for this purpose is in negotiations with the Andalusian Regional Government to request an extension of the current Law 6/2021 on measures for the renovation and modernisation of tourist accommodation establishments for a further 3 years. According to a report by the Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol, 57.1% of the establishments in the province want to undertake modernisation work on their hotel establishments in the coming years, "so we can offer better facilities and services to the tourists who visit us", concluded Hernández.

 

Source: Mijas Comunicación S.A.