Laurence Dollimore
BUSINESSES in Malaga province have seen a 60% drop in customers since the closure of town borders across Andalucia almost a month ago.
Larger municipalities, such as Malaga city, have seen a substantial drop in visitors from inland or peripheral towns, as they have been unable to leave their areas unless for work, medical or legal reasons.
Meanwhile a lack of tourism, domestic and international, resulted in supply far outpacing demand.
And with shoppers not finding what they need locally, they have been steered towards online giants such as Amazon.
Head of the Malaga Business Federation Salvador Perez told Diario Sur: “At least half of sales have been lost, because added to all of these problems are limited hours (closure at 6pm), which is crushing us in every way.”
Perez said travel ‘makes us consume more because it is associated with leisure.’
“If this happened to us in February, we could cope, but at the start of December it is doing terrible damage,” he added.
The president of the merchants association in Torremolinos, Juan Vallejo, said business cannot survive on local trade because the reduced demand will not meet the supply.
“Many tourists visit us on weekends, and that has meant that we cannot even cover expenses,” he told Diario Sur.
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