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Malaga health tourism bid to boost Brand Spain

Spain’s Costal del Sol is set to become an international health tourism hub for patients from around the world thanks to the lower costs and good reputation of medical facilities across Andalusia.

Published: 13 May 2013 12:25 CEST

The ambitious project could bring between €250 to 300 million to the province every year from healthcare payments alone. Photo:Saludand/Flickr

Public and private healthcare providers from the UK, Holland, Norway, Finland, Germany, China, Indonesia and Russia will start sending patients to Spain’s sunny Costa del Sol in the next few months, Andalusian daily Sur reported on Monday.

Fundación Málaga Health and Tourism & Health Spain are the two companies behind a deal which will allow international patients to be treated and operated on in Spanish clinics.

They also hope to bring between €250 to 300 million to the province every year from healthcare payments alone.

“Spain has a service-based economy and healthcare is the most highly regarded sector in the country,” Miguel Such, surgeon and driving force behind the campaign, told online newspaper Málaga Hoy.

“We've never taken advantage of this. We think it will help to create a sustainable tourism model that doesn't depend on seasons. It will also bring prestige to brand Spain.”

Such plans to make Malaga one of 55 cities around the world that make a whopping €70 billion a year from health tourism.

The Malaga-based surgeon thinks Spain has gained prominence for its excellent medical system that offers low cost and quality medical treatment to Spanish patients.

“The government has invested a lot in the country’s healthcare, now’s the time to reap the benefits.”

With nearly 4,500 private hospital beds and 42 per cent of Andalusia’s four and five star hotels, Malaga has the third highest number of both private healthcare and hotel facilities in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona.

Competitive prices for treatment and regular flights make it an even better deal for foreign healthcare providers.

“The British market is our first target, because in the UK the Costa del Sol is very well-known,” Jesús Burgos, spokesperson for Tourism & Health Spain, told Andalusian daily Sur.

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Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate).

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average.

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal.

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun.

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring.

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022.

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices.

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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