At Guide to Malaga, we truly value the feedback we get from our followers. Whether you’re website users or fans of our social media channels, what you think matters. It shapes our content, decide what’s useful and most of all, helps us help you to make the most of Malaga.
But up until now, we’d never done a Malaga survey. But then again, the city had never found itself with zero tourism and with some much uncertainty in the air. These are unprecedented times and those of us who work in the tourism sector need to think creatively. And to help us do that, we asked you some questions about how you feel about Malaga now and in the future. This article sums up the results, interesting, surprising and very insightful.
First of all, a big ¡gracias!
When we first put out a request for survey answers, we thought it would be great if we could get 50 back. So, imagine our amazement when we discovered that nearly 300 people of you had filled it out on the first day. (We even had to upgrade our Survey Monkey subscription so we could access all the results!)
This then grew to over 450 and as of today, we have had 477 responses. Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us what you think. Your opinions and thoughts in the Malaga survey will be extremely useful to us moving forward. And yes, we have some creative ideas on the horizon…
So then to what you said.
You visit Malaga more often than we thought
Our first question was to set the scene. We asked who lived nearby – just 28% of you live in or within 90 minutes’ drive of the city. We then wanted to know how often you visit Malaga and here was the first surprise.
Almost 44% of you come several times a year and 38% visit at least once every 12 months. We knew you were dedicated, but these figures are much higher than we thought. Just over 3% have still yet to visit – we really hope you can get that visit in sooner rather than later. 🤞
No wonder so many of you are Malaga Dreaming!
Wishing you could visit Malaga at the moment? Check out our My Malaga At Home section, bringing the city to a screen in your home!
What you miss about Malaga
Our Malaga survey gave you 4 options plus a free-for-all ‘you choose’. Over two-thirds of you are missing the sunshine (no surprise there), cultural activities and the foodie scene. As for events, just 30% said they were missing those.
But the most interesting section here was the ‘Other’ and most people added something else they’re missing about the city. At least 30 people said, “Everything” – some true Malaga fans there. Lots of people said they missed the people, the warm welcome, the walks and the city architecture.
Our absolute takeaway? “The general feel to the city. It has a vibe like no other and I’ve never felt more at home in a city.”
Your concerns re the short term
This was perhaps the most insightful section, and although worries about post-lockdown and covid-19 are global, your replies did include some surprises. Top of your concerns was how to social distance – this worried over 60% of you. A real challenge as we’re discovering this week in Malaga – walking, running or just being a 2-metre distance from everyone is no mean feat. One respondent said, “maybe a rear-view mirror on our shoulder would help!” Business idea there, perhaps?
In line with this was the worry of coming across too many people in Malaga. We’ve all been to packed events in the city. “Lots of people won’t want to be in a big, squished crowd,” one of you said.
Your next biggest concern was finding your favourite venue closed when you return. Nearly half of you ticked this option. Hopefully this won’t be the case and at Guide to Malaga, we’re certainly going to do our bit to ensure the best businesses in the city stay open, but it is a worry.
Our absolute takeaway? The number of people who said they had no worries about coming back. Good news for Malaga tourism there.
Events? No thank you
Our Malaga survey included events and we wanted to know if you would still want to go. Nearly half of you said no or at least no until covid-19 is under control. Around a quarter of you would go if you were really interested in the event. And nearly 12% would be happy to attend if it was a small occasion. Certainly the new rules for post-lockdown in Malaga mean all events have to be super-small.
Our absolute takeaway? Malaga does (did?) large-scale events very well so this will be one of the biggest challenges facing the city.
The future of tourism in Malaga
Many industry experts say that tourism as we knew it up until mid-March won’t be the same for the short-term and possibly the medium-term too. Some claim it will never go back to what it was and that destinations will have to rethink what they offer and how they offer it. So, we were curious to know how you think Malaga could be better post-covid-19.
Over 55% of you thought the way forward was to offer more quality. 28% believe that fewer tourists will improve the city and this sentiment was echoed in the comments too. Loads mentioned cruise ships specifically “Fewer cruise ships PLEASE,” shouted one of them.
Hardly any of you (just 5%) went for the luxury option. So you want quality but not as high-end as it goes. And lots of you don’t want anything to change at all. “It couldn’t be a better destination; it just needs to feel safe,” said one respondent. We imagine the city, provincial and regional tourist boards are working on that one.
Our absolute takeaway? “Just be Malaga,” said by an obviously huge Malaga fan.
Help businesses out
One of your biggest worries regarding the future after lockdown and as the covid-19 crisis moves forward is finding your favourite haunts closed. So, it isn’t surprising to see that over 75% of you gave a resounding yes when asked if you’d be willing to help Malaga businesses get back on their feet.
Our biggest takeaway of all
While our Malaga survey provided valuable feedback on what you feel and want – we’ve already used this information to help Guide to Malaga move forward – it also showed us how much you love the city.
We spend a lot of time promoting the city because we personally love it, warts and all. But we never realised just quite how much you share this passion. Because of this, at Guide to Malaga we’ll continue to do our bit to bring Malaga to you for as long as you can’t come here. We’re also working hard on the next stage and look forward to taking the city to a very bright future, hopefully even brighter than before.
Again, thank you for your time and interest. And as we always say in the #MyMalagaAtHome posts, stay safe 💪 and see you very soon in Malaga!
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