Plans to promote Marbella as the new St Tropez

24 June 2014

Ricardo Arranz, president of the Andalusian Federation of Urban and Residential Tourism, has proposed to establish a marketing and image campaign to transfer the brand Marbella in the province of Malaga as a tourist destination linked to luxury, much like St. Tropez is associated with high end luxury on the French Rivera. According to Arranz, it will benefit not only Malaga and Marbella, but also all of Andalucía.

As he told Europa Press, Arranz regrets the lack of marketing strategies and communication about the Marbella brand and the Golden Triangle of the Costa del Sol, to be able to be compared to luxury tourism spots such as Saint Tropez, since emerging markets are demanding high end luxury travel spots.

He stressed that this campaign will mean a large growth spurt for Malaga and Andalucía, as he advocates to promote the brand as a destination that “is already well established in the eyes of many”. Among other advantages, Marbella is an established destination with a great infrastructure across Europe, "we have it all, we just need to learn how to develop and sell it". He blames politicians and businessmen because they have not “worked to solve the weaknesses that there might be present”.

On the other hand, Arranz pointed out that the coastal area has a lot of movement, regarding occupation of both hotels and residential tourism; there are more clients and better prices and there is clear recovery in some areas. He also added that regarding residential tourism a money and people influx is reaching us from several countries such as Germany, Russia or United States, even the Middle East who are interested in investing and would like to transfer some of their wealth the Marbella area. In this regard, he has pointed out the need to make new products for these markets, after the bank stocks are in place.

Arranz acknowledged that homes already built are “harder to sell, because there are lots of them, so until the stock of residences is sold, it will be difficult to start construction of new homes”. He also stated that “Marbella’s greatest advantage is the fact that it has a very small stock”.