Benefits:
- Raised levels of development in one of Europe's poorest regions
Problems:
- Minimal planning regulations and controls for first 20 years of mass tourism therefore development was uncoordinated and piecemeal
- Cheap and shoddily constructed high-rise hotels and apartment blocks
- Little provision for access to beaches (i.e promenades) as well as traffic management, parks and sewage treatment facilities
- Development has reached saturation point along most stretches, (Torremolinos and Fuengirola, 3/4 fully urbanised for nearly 1km inland)
- 30,000 illegally built houses since planning controls
- Widespread corruption and bribery (El Algarrobico hotel scandal on the Costa Callida- given permission for in 2003 on a 200ha site)
- 65,000 foreigners own own properties on the Costa del Sol (expected to increase to 200,000 by 2012)
- 30% increase in the number of new hotels built between 2000 and 2004, pressure on land, traffic circulation, water resources and the natural environment
Solutions:
- Modern planning policies aim to restrict urban development and remove eyesore from the 1960's-70's
- Protests from local pressure groups and Greenpeace meant the Ministry of Environment stated the El Algarrobico was illegal in 2006
Golf tourism:
Facts:
- Andalucia has 90 golf courses (plans to increase it to 200)
- 50% of courses on the Costa del Sol
Benefits:
- Attract new hotels
- Apartments in urbanizaciones with access to golf cost on average 40% more
- Per capita spending of golf tourists is much higher than other groups
Problems:
- No longer able to compete with the 'sun and sand' holiday destinations
- Drought-prone region, golf course needs 700,000 m³/yr (enough to supply a town of 15,000-25,000 people)
Solutions:
- Planners trying to stop developments that are non-sustainable
- Ecologists argue golf courses should be decided at regional not provincial level
Marinas:
Benefits:
- Provide an area for the mooring of pleasure boats
- Artificial beach replenishment provides permanent beaches for the expensive properties in the area
Problems:
- In 2006 increased construction of harbours, piers and breakwaters disrupted sediment movement in the coastal zone=beach starvation and erosion. (e.g Puerto Banas marina prevented longshore drift across the mouth of Rio Verde)
Solutions:
- Groynes constructed downdrift of the marinas to prevent loss of sediment offshore
- Artificial beach sediment (good short-term but unsustainable)(Mined offshore destroying sea meadows and the marine animals dependent on them)
- Government policy not to replenish beaches that lose sand due to coastal constructions
