The EMT recorded its historic day with 209,059 travellers on August 18. Hotel occupancy approached 94% and the event created 1,400 jobs.
The Málaga Fair 2026 has concluded with a balance that reinforces its role as an economic engine of the capital. The EMT counted its highest attendance day on Tuesday, August 18, with 209,059 travellers, a historic record in over a hundred years of the company.
To meet this demand, the City Council increased the bus service by 40% compared to a normal day, with 16 special lines and continuous service for 24 hours. This reinforcement explains a significant part of the increase in mobility and positions public transport as the most reliable gauge of actual attendance at the fairgrounds, surpassing attendance estimates.
In the hotel sector, the Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol (Aehcos) reported an occupancy rate of 93.57%, just five-tenths below the 93.62% recorded in 2025. This figure reveals a market close to its capacity ceiling during fair dates, with limited growth potential despite the increase in other indicators. Additionally, 9 cruise ships and over 19,000 passengers arrived through the Port of Málaga.
The Fair provided employment for around 1,400 people, distributed among 98 attractions and 234 authorised sales outlets in the Real and the 37 street stalls in the Centre. This job creation is concentrated and temporary, linked to the festive calendar, with no signs of conversion to stable contracts.
The nearly 200 free shows scheduled by the City Council attracted 951,030 visits, with the Municipal Auditorium as the main focus (79,500 people) and the drone and pyromusical show on August 14 gathering 370,000 attendees. Meanwhile, the municipal social media reached 6.7 million views and 188,470 interactions, with a notable jump in the specific Fair accounts: 5.98 million impressions, almost double that of 2025.
The flip side of these figures is the operational cost. Limasam collected 1,267 tonnes of waste, an 8% increase from the previous year, with 500 workers mobilised. The Local Police deployed an average of 443 officers daily and made 53 arrests, indicating that security is a growing expense directly proportional to the success of the event.
The balance for 2026 shows a clear pattern: mobility and public spending are increasing more intensely than hotel occupancy, which is already operating close to its physical limit. If this gap persists in future editions, the challenge for the City Council will be to monetise the increase in attendance without the costs of the operation (cleaning, security, extraordinary transport) eroding the net balance of the event for municipal finances.
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