The mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz, has shown himself to be "fully confident in the defense that both the president of the Junta and the Minister of Tourism can make of our interests," and has brought up data on Chinese visitors to defend his position.

Sanz has pointed out that Seville registers about 36,000 Chinese tourists annually and Malaga "just under eight thousand." However, this data does not correspond exactly with the reports of travellers staying in hotel establishments compiled by the National Institute of Statistics, in 2022. Specifically, according to INE data, Seville registered 14,497 Chinese tourists that year, ranking as the third Spanish capital to host visitors from that Asian country, behind Barcelona (80,658), and Madrid (65,200). Malaga is the seventh, behind Valencia (14,121), the Balearic Islands (13,857) and Alicante (8,281).

The mayor of Seville has insisted that the Chinese market represents the eighth niche of visitors for Seville, and that for Malaga it occupies the 20th position. "Both the Chinese authorities and the Junta know what the priority of Chinese tourism is," said Sanz to demand that the direct flight with China arrive at the Seville airfield.

However, Juanma Moreno declared that it will be the Air China company that will choose which of the two Andalusian airports will establish its direct flight with Andalusia. For the Malaga business sector, there is no doubt that this flight has to land in Malaga since, unlike Seville, the airport of the capital of the Costa del Sol operates 24 hours a day, has 136 direct connections with cities around the world, and is better connected to the city by train and bus.

According to the data handled by the Ministry of Tourism, a direct flight with China would increase the number of travellers from that country who would arrive in the region by around 188 percent, up to an approximate figure of 50,000 per year. In 2023, visitors to Andalusia from China had stays of more than ten days, with an average expenditure per person per day of 288 euros, and almost 3,000 euros for the total stay.