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Despite the grinding economic crisis across much of the Eurozone, the sun is continuing to shine on the luxury tourism sector in Spain.
A record number of foreign tourists visited Spain this summer, welcome news for a country mired in recession and suffering massive unemployment.
STORYLINE:
Welcome to the Costa del Sol, one of the most popular holiday destinations in the whole of Europe.
This 160 kilometre-long (100 miles) strip of sand is the place where tourists from countless countries and across the social spectrum gather to spend a few days in the hot Spainish sun.
From what Malaga and Torremolinos locals call the "spaghetti and chips brigade" to the rich, old and "nouveau" in Marbella, there is something for all wallets
on Spain's most famous coastline.
Frontur, the tourism department's statistics agency, say that 7.9 million people visited in July, up 2.9 percent from July 2012. Britain led the influx with 1.8 million visitors, followed by France and Germany with 1.2 million each.
Frontur sayd 34 million foreigners arrived in Spain in the January-July period, an increase of 3.9 percent on last year.
Russians represented the biggest increase, with 838, 876 arrivals in the period, up 31 percent on the year.
The country has been in recession for most of the past four years and has a 26.3 percent unemployment rate.
In 2012, the local authorities in the autonomic region of Andalucia began a strategy called "Elite Collection" designed to lure the super-rich to their shores.
The area in and around Marbella now offers dozens of luxury hotels, beach clubs, limousine rentals and private aircraft companies.
The rich and beautiful flock to the town of Puerto Banus.
In this marina, luxury yachts and sailboats float just next to the main street.
This Dutch stockbroker takes his yacht called "Lisumar" every summer from the Algarve Coast in Portugal to Puerto Banus, where he and his wife spend the last week of their holidays.
Edi Koubers says there is no sign of economic hardship here.
"We don't feel the crisis here. I think Puerto Banus is a world within a world. We were also in Portugal and there we saw the crisis. Here in Spain you don't see it as bad as over there," .
Despite looking like an old fishing town, Puerto Banus is a relatively new resort dating back to just 1970.
In the 1970's, Marbella began a spectacular growth as a tourist destination and Jose Banus, a local real estate developer, began attracting the super-rich to this area formerly known as "Nueva Andalucia".
Instead of spectacular high rises, Banus decided to build this marina from scratch, to create a town that resembled a quiet Andalucian fishing village.
It was a successful strategy and today millions of tourists visit Puerto Banus every year.
The local tourist board describes a 'high-end tourist' as a professional person in their 30's and 40's, cultured and willing to spend between �3,000 ($3,950 USD) and �50,000 ($66,000 USD) on a couple of weeks in Spain.
Dozens of luxury boutiques and shops around the marina area do good business all year around, but their peak season is between May and August.
Over �140 million ($185 million USD) was spent in shops during that period in 2011.
In a branch of the French jeweller's Cartier the average price of a single piece here is stands at around �5,000 ($6,595 USD)
Prices at Cartier range from as little as �100 ($131 USD) to hundreds of thousands.
Store manager Myl�ne Giglio says that despite the economic crisis, their clients are still keen to indulge.
"Our clients always maintain the same purchase power regardless the crisis. Every time they want to treat themselves they come straight to our shop," says Giglio.
The hotel had an average occupation of 68 percent during 2012.


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