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Málaga is one of the fastest-growing destinations in Europe and an important driver of Spanish economy, with booming numbers of tourists, expats and retirees attracted by its unique charm and the beautiful Andalusia region.
That’s not all, though – as the 2020 winner of the prestigious European Capital of Smart Tourism award, Málaga, its authorities and its local businesses have showed how massive tourism growth can be channeled sustainably, benefitting its residents and the region in general. With this win, Málaga has joined the prestigious club with select European cities such as Dublin, Torino, Tampere, and Seville.
Today we talked to Ms. Joanna Styles, who has been living in Spain for over 30 years and in Malaga for over 10. She runs Guide to Malaga, a travel business based on her passion for Costa del Sol and has played a significant role in helping tourists and expats discover this city and the surrounding region.
Read on to discover what it takes to maintain a detailed, always fresh guide like this and what to expect from Malaga.
Tell us more about the beginnings of Guide to Malaga. Did it start as a hobby or a business?
Guide to Malaga started when my husband and I moved from the western Costa del Sol to Malaga city in 2015 and I discovered that there weren’t any reliable and up-to-date English-language resources about the city. Malaga got little mentions, but most information focused on resorts like Marbella and Nerja.
Guide to Malaga started as an app, with a website selling the app and with a blog to drive traffic to the website. This business model quickly became unsustainable, so we converted the blog into the website. Ten years later, it now has over 500 pages and pretty much contains all the information you need about Malaga.
It has always been a business-hobby combo. The first because dedicating so much time to creating useful content has to be monetised and the second because I love the city. Ten years after its launch, Guide to Malaga is more of a business, but I still enjoy writing about things to do and see here!
Your guides cover not just travel, but also resettlement and bureaucracy. What are the expat trends in Malaga and the surrounding region?
We expanded into the relocation side of Malaga to appeal to English-language residents or long-term visitors. The Costa del Sol has been a magnet for relocation since the early 70s and over the last ten years, Malaga has turned into a tech and financial hotspot. Numerous big-name companies have set up in the city, creating high-profile job opportunities.
Expats are from all over the world, although Europeans make up most of them. I think this will continue as a trend since Malaga has a great year-round climate, excellent connections, and a relaxed lifestyle. Spain also offers tax incentives to digital nomads (non-EU citizens), which are attractive if your income is high.
What is the one hidden gem of Malaga city that most people don't experience during their visit, but should?
A difficult question because there are lots! At Guide to Malaga, we’re always encouraging visitors (and residents) to get off the beaten track and discover the Malaga beyond the old quarter. There’s so much, from an extraordinary crypt in the Basilica de la Victoria to a historic shipyard in Pedregalejo via industrial chimneys on the western seafront, a bird-watcher’s paradise in a nature reserve, a Neo-Mudejar market, beautiful botanical gardens, a historic fig tree…
Our website has a section of self-guided walks around different parts of Malaga, and its aim is to introduce visitors to another side of the city. We even have two for the old quarter, showing visitors hidden corners that you wouldn’t see if you didn’t lose yourself in the little streets and alleys. I think this is a valuable resource.
We also try to include unusual events in our monthly what’s on post to try to introduce visitors to local culture and customs.
Asking AI for travel advice is an emerging trend and subject to a lot of hype. Do you think "AI travel guides" can get any traction among travellers?
An AI travel guide makes a useful planner because it can quickly summarise the highlights of a destination and help you work out budget and logistics. However, we don’t find it very accurate for Malaga information – only the other day, ChatGPT recommended we include a café in Malaga that has been closed for several years and Claude said there were some private beaches in the city (not true here or anywhere in Spain).
I also wouldn’t recommend it for travel advice – there’s no substitute for official government sites for visa and travel safety information.
Given the popularity of your website, you must be swarmed with requests to recommend this or that place. How do you balance paid placements and partnerships without harming credibility?
Yes, we are! And you’re right, it can be a challenge to balance recommending businesses who have paid us and those who haven’t. We get round this by only taking paid placements and partnerships from companies we know are good (either personally or through a recommendation from a third party we trust). For example, we eat in all the restaurants that advertise on the website on a regular basis.
That said, we also recommend other businesses because our mission is for visitors to discover the best of Malaga.
What advice would you give someone looking to start a similar guide about their own city?
I think the first step is being passionate about the destination. If you don’t love a city, you’ll quickly get tired of creating content about it.
The second step is local knowledge. Anyone can list the top sights and restaurants, but only someone who knows a destination well can go beyond the usual attractions and offer something different.
Then, I’d recommend understanding the tourist. Knowing exactly what visitors need and want is a valuable resource when creating content. And lastly, you’ll need lots of time – creating quality content is time-consuming (even if you use AI) and keeping it updated also takes hours!
Where do you see Malaga as a destination in 10 years?
Another difficult question because tourism is constantly changing. I think the city will continue to appeal as a city-break destination – it’s so easy to get to, it has a welcoming vibe, remains relatively good value and has lots of sunshine.
That said, there’s a problem of over-tourism, especially on days when several cruise ships dock at once (Malaga received over 570,000 passengers in 2025 – the equivalent of the city’s population). And locals complain of gentrification in the central districts – a cup of coffee costs from €3 in most places in the old quarter, when it costs €1.80 or less in the suburbs. Local salaries don’t match the rise. Many traditional stores have closed because rents have risen as the city has become more popular with tourists and ‘wealthy’ expat residents. But the biggest problem is the lack of affordable housing in the centre, where private holiday lets and serviced apartments have forced regular lets for residents out of the market. As a result, many people who used to live in the centre have had to move elsewhere, which is sad. These problems are, of course, not unique to Malaga and many cities are currently struggling with them.
To stay popular, I think Malaga needs to work more on being a quality destination. By this, we mean making sure the city is clean, the parks and gardens are well kept, offering good service all the time, and not encouraging hordes of visitors. We’d like to see the main focus on “more is less”, meaning fewer visitors but with a higher spend. This is perhaps the only way to make sure tourism really benefits locals and allows the city to maintain its authentic vibe so that tourists want to visit and return.
Hopefully, Malaga will do this because it’s a great city to visit and experience, and we love sharing it!
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Once again we’d like to express our thanks to Joanna and the Guide to Malaga team for sharing these insights with us, and we wish them all the best in their future work as they work to make Malaga an even nicer and more popular destination!
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Photo credit: “Night in Malaga” and “View of Malaga in the evening” by Holger Uwe Schmitt, Wikimedia Commons, adapted and used under CC 4.0
