On 27 November, the first stage of the new train station in Málaga was inaugurated. The station, which will be reached by high-speed trains next year, will hold eight times as many passengers as the old one, up to 24 millions a year. The María Zambrano Vialia Station will be the stage of a transport revolution, taking Málaga one step further on its way to become one of the major cities in Southern Europe.
Following the Ministry of Development’s guidelines laid down in the Strategic Infrastructure and Transport Plan (PEIT), the station was designed as a model of intermodality, boosting public transport to improve communications while protecting the environment.
Vialia Málaga will be the largest intermodal and commercial transport centre ever built in Spain. To the rail services already in operation –commuter, regional and long-distance trains–, it will add high-speed rail, bringing Málaga much closer to the rest of Spain and Europe.
The Vialia Project will give Málaga City a significant economic boost, since the station will feature a big shopping and leisure centre (with 102 retail shops), an underground car park (for 1,300 vehicles), a Lux Cinemas complex (including 13 cinema theatres), a 3,000 m2 professional bowling alley, and several restaurants. The complex will also have a four-star hotel run by Barceló, endowed with 222 guestrooms in 7 floors. In addition, Vialia Málaga will have a social impact, since it is expected to create 420 direct and 500 indirect jobs.
The new facilities’ total surface is 51,377 m2, that is, five times as large as the old station (9,720 m2), incorporating the Málaga commuter train station as well. As for rail capacity, it will have 8 platforms instead of 5, thus increasing by 60% the number of trains operating simultaneously.
Vialia’s works have meant an investment of 134.7 million euros in a design enhancing HST-commuter train intermodality and connecting the station with the airport, local and intercity bus lines, taxi ranks and other vehicles. Besides, in the future, the facilities will also be linked to two underground lines.
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The Costa del Sol Tourist Board has welcomed a group of travel agents from the Czech tour operator Cedok, following a request by both the Spanish Tourism Office in Vienna and Ultramar Express, the receptive agency for Cedok on the Costa del Sol.
Cedok began operating with the Costa del Sol, represented by Ultramar, some years ago with a charter flight of 50 seats, and now operates two flights a week to and from the Costa del Sol.
The group, which was offered a complete presentation of our destination, was made up of 18 travel agents, who arrived accompanied by the tour operator’s product manager for Spain and a representative of Ultramar Express. When the presentation ended, the travel agents were given informative and promotional material packs.
The Tourist Office of the Costa del Sol (“Patronato de Turismo”) has advertised its golf offer in the France Golf Open, which 100th edition was celebrated in Versalle.
The organization of Malaga went to the event with an expositor of the Andalusian Golf Federation and the Spanish Tourism Office of Paris. They were very well visited during the four days that the event lasted. The main visitors were amateurs players, according to the Association reports.
During the event, association technicians met with tour-operators to explore the possibilities to improve the presence of the Costa del Sol in France: in the magazines and future actions of promotion.
The Association emphasized the growing of the French market: “it grows every year with a ratio between 8 and 10%”, which is because “golf is a sport which has more followers every day”.
It is a mature market, with a high level of knowledge about Spain as a golf destination, especially of the Costa del Sol, which is an appreciated and valued area, although not so much marketed in France.
The Costa del Sol wants to attract people not only because of sun and beaches.
Sun and beaches are the main reasons to visit Costa del Sol since 1960. However, in a global context as nowadays, the competition is bigger and the tourism related companies think it is necessary to bring forward additional offers to make the Costa del Sol a destination offering more than just leisure. According to the newspaper “Malaga Hoy”: “We need to offer as much as possible: sun, beaches, golfing, skiing in the Sierra Nevada, excursions to other provinces of Andalusia or to the north of Africa, our gastronomy… There should be a bigger variety for our guests, not only the beaches”, explained Salvador Vilches, president of the association of hoteliers in the region Costa del Sol. Pedro García, president of the Association of Travel Agents, thinks the same way; the expert pointed out that “all we want is to get rid of the sun-umbrella-only-image and start marketing all complementary offers we have. We should not sell the Costa del Sol as an exotic destination, because we are not, but it is true that we have a well known area and a wide range of options”. Hotels and travel agents affirmed they are working on packs for tourists for winter which will include, for example: four days in the Costa del Sol and three days in the Sierra Nevada, “although we would like to start offering more packages and take an agreement with the companies of Granada to market specific products”. It is supposed to follow the example of collaboration between Seville and Huelva. Vilches and García affirmed that they have talked about this idea with the persons in charge of the administration to achieve the same support.
