The Caminito del Rey, The King´s path |
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EL CAMINITO DEL REY - STATISTICS
by Chris Chaplow
Statistics about the 1.3m unique visitors to the Caminito de Rey official website. in its first year of operation were anounced in a press release by the Malaga provincial council. 22% of web visitors were from abroad. We were pleased to see reported that "The visits that come from diariosur.es, and other travel websites, such as skyscanner.es and andalucia.com stand out".
On the actual footpath, there were 23.000 visitors in the first month of operation. In the first year of operation there were 300.000 (free) tickets issued online. The Malaga provincial council has not reported how many tickets were actually used as it is known a high percentage of the free tickets that could not be re-dated were 'no shows'.
Since the purchase of tickets was introduced on 22nd April 2016 up to 25th July 2016 there were 86.100 visitors, equal to 100% sales of the maximum 1.100 per day allocation.
We calculate the annual visitor ticket sales to be slightly less than 300.000 per year making it about the twelth most Popular attraction in Andalucia.
To mark the first anniversary, the Diputación de Málaga reported that, while the investment in the path was €5.5 million, the annual economic benefit to the area is €20 million. The local press reported this headline verbatim. The report was based on 74,135 tourists staying on average for 1.7 days and spending an average of € 64.88, which equates to €8.2m spent annually. In addition, 172,980 day-trippers spent an average of €26.20, equalling €4.5m annually. The report adds a further 7 million euros for indirect expenditure to reach the 20 million euro return. Andalucia.com views these figures as inflated and has never received a detailed breakdown despite several requests. This figure was mysteriously revised upwards to 40m € million annually on the anniversary of the path's opening.
The numbers were revalidated by an internal SOPDE study a few years later. reported in Malaga Hoy. Comparisons were made between the 2017 estimates and those of 2020. 2017s direct impact of 16.9m € became 23.3m € in 2020. After indirect and induced impact were added the 23.3€ economic benefit became 44.0€.
In September 2017 Francisco Campano of the path management company announced that the number of foreigners using the path was increasing and over the summer had reached 65%. There had been visitors form 84 different countries.
To mark the three-year anniversary of the reopening of the Caminito del Rey, the provincial government announced that the path had received one million visitors. This figure was widely reported with enthusiasm in the local press. However, since the first year saw the issue of 300,000 free tickets, a large proportion of which went unused, and the second and third years were subject to a management contract limiting attendance to 300,000 per year, we estimate the actual number of visitors to be closer to 800,000. It was also reported that the economic benefit to the area was €100m, which assumes an unrealistic average spend of €120 per visitor. This figure did include the Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) of press coverage, contrary to the Barcelona Principles established by the PR industry.
At the opening of the new visitors centre on 20 October 2022 Francisco Salado, President of Malaga´s provincial council stated that since opening on 28th March 2015, 2.2m people had visited the Camino del Rey. At 7 years and 7 months that is 290k a year. Every year, the Caminito del Rey generates an economic impact of around 25m €, which means a total of 175m €. Its popularity has also led to a huge increase in the number of tourist accommodations which have risen from 210 in 2016 to 474 by 2022 offering 5,600 beds. Source
The tenth anniversary and the inauguration of works for new exit bridge and path was an opportunity to release more statistics. Francisco Salado emphasised that over the last ten years, Caminito del Rey has also been a model of consensus and cooperation between administrations, giving rise to what has come to be known as “the spirit of Caminito”. In statistics, 2.9 million people have walked the path, and average of 290,000 per year) and another 140,000 people visited the area but did not complete the route. Three million people have visited the adjacent municipalities: Álora, Antequera, Ardales, Campillos, Carratraca and Valle de Abdalajís where there has been spectacular growth. Accommodation establishments rising from 210 to 893 and the number of beds has doubled, from 4,204 in 2015 to the current 8,160.
According to a study by Turismo y Planificación Costa del Sol, one in four visitors to the Caminito del Rey are tourists who stay overnight in the surrounding municipalities. More than half of these visitors are foreign tourists. One in four are Spaniards from outside Andalusia. Residents of Málaga province account for 14%. The average tourist stay in the area is 3.1 days, with an average daily expenditure of €91.22. Since El Caminito opened in 2015, 685 jobs have been created, both directly and indirectly, and the path's economic impact is growing every year. In 2024, this figure stood at €64.1 million. Source
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Excursions to El Caminito del Rey
The tours listed above have pick up points at the Caminito del Rey. For excursions picking up at other cities or resorts including the transfer to Caminito del Rey check out these listing:
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