The Town Council has been developing ‘sport tourism,’ offering the town’s enviable climate and top-notch sporting facilities, which has attracted elite athletes with the proximity of the London Olympics 2012.

Last year, for example, the town had 500 registered, sports-facility users whereas this season things are set for it to reach a figure closer to 800 from the football and athletics world. The Councillor for Sports, José Alberto Tomé (PP) has underlined how well the Programa Turismo-Deporte is going, which is a joint programme between the Town Hall and private enterprise in the form of local hotels that has been running for three years.

The said programme offers a tourist accommodation package, complete with the use of sports installations at the Ciudad Deportiva Enrique López Cuenca; installations that include a sports stadium and football pitch with artificial grass, as well as a sports pavilion and an indoor, heated swimming pool.

It is precisely because we are in an Olympic year that some foreign sports federations have chosen Nerja to send their teams to complete their training, almost turning the installations into a mini Olympic village. Amongst those training there are the reigning high-jump champion from the last Olympics in Pekin, Tia Hellebaut from Belgium.

(News: Nerja, Axarquía, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)