The president of the Malaga Provincial Council and Costa del Sol Tourism, Francisco Salado, and the Councillor for Tourism of Malaga City Council, Jacobo Florido, have held a working meeting with executives of United Airlines to discuss the possible extension to the whole year of the direct flight that the North American company maintains between the capital of the Costa del Sol and New York from May to September.

At the work meeting, held within the framework of the L’Attitude convention, which brings together more than 6,000 businessmen and executives from the Latino community in the United States in San Diego, Salado and Florido agreed with the representatives of UnitedAirlines in highlighting the “magnificent” operating results that the direct flight between Malaga airport and Newark airport is registering, with a daily frequency this season.

The president of the Malaga Provincial Council and of Costa del Sol Tourism, as well as the person responsible for Tourism of the Malaga City Council, have underlined the strategic importance of this link and advocated continuing to work to have new direct flights to other cities in the United States, taking advantage not only of the “unbeatable tourist offer” of the province of Malaga, but also its technological and business development and the great advantage of the connectivity to almost 140 cities around the world offered by the Malaga airport.

“The Costa del Sol is a safe bet and it is only a matter of time, and of continuing to work as we are doing, so that we have more direct connections with other North American hubs, which give us preferential access to a tourist market of enormous quality and with a first-class purchasing power, but also to many business opportunities for our economic development,” explained Salado.

Salado has valued the importance of collaboration between administrations and the presence of Turismo Costa del Sol and the City Council at the L’Attitude convention in San Diego, where contacts have been maintained with businessmen and executives of technology companies, real estate companies and companies linked to the communication, tourism and sports sectors.

For his part, Jacobo Florido has underlined the international recognition that Málaga and the Costa del Sol receive “at any leading business event that we attend” and has pointed out the “enormous interest that exists among large US companies in the technological, business and tourist take-off of Málaga”. “We are the air gateway to Andalusia, but we also want to be the gateway to Europe for American travellers and investors”, said the Málaga Councillor for Tourism.

A delegation from Turismo Costa del Sol, as well as a representative from Málaga City Council, have participated in the L’Attitude congress in San Diego, and are supporting The Embassy basketball team from the Higuerón Training Center in Fuengirola, which is taking part in the important basketball tournament that is also being held on the occasion of the most important meeting of the Latin community in the USA, and which is attended by dozens of scouts from the NBA and the main North American universities.

With this promotional action, in which Fuengirola City Council and the Andalusian Regional Government are also participating, the administrations continue to work on their strategy of becoming increasingly present in the North American market by strengthening ties and links with the Latin community, which also includes actions such as the recent celebration of the Latin Grammy Awards in Andalusia.

The figures revealed during the congress, which have been covered by the main media outlets in the United States, highlight that the Latinos of the North American country alone, alone, would be the fifth largest economy in the world, with a consumption capacity that grows 2.5 times more than that of any other community in the country and an equivalent wealth or GDP that already amounts to 3.7 trillion dollars. This development of the community has led to the presence of Latino executives in the main companies in the country, who participate in the L’Attitude convention with different panels that address Artificial Intelligence, new technologies, the world of communication, sports, education and the real estate sector, among others.