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Photo of the living room of a rural house in the interior of Malaga province. SUR Tourism Malaga rural tourism gains prominence as interior visitor numbers soarThe inland regions of Malaga province experienced a record-breaking year in 2025, with the tourism sector seeing significant growth across three primary pillars: visitor numbers, revenue, and employment
Málaga
Friday, 20 March 2026, 15:42
ShareRural tourism is gaining prominence in the province of Malaga. According to the review of 2025, which head of Turismo Costa del Sol Francisco Salado has presented, all three pillars of the sector grew last year: revenue, employments and visitors.
Key growth areas for rural tourism in Malage province for 2026
More than 70% of the accommodation options are concentrated in three iconic districts:
Serranía de Ronda
Guadalhorce Valley
Axarquía
Salado has described 2025 as an "extraordinarily positive" year for tourism. According to the report, 1,442,500 tourists stayed in the interior of the province last year, 3.9 per cent more than in 2024. They generated spending that impacted the economy by almost 1.87 billion euros (+4.2 per cent).
The ever-growing tourism offer has led to a 5.5 per cent rise in employment, reaching 19,738 jobs. Salado also emphasised that, according to Turismo Costa del Sol, 25.2 per cent of tourists who arrived in the province last year visited the interior. "This means that some 3.7 million people visited some of the interior municipalities of Malaga, on a short trip, without staying overnight," Salado said.
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