New figures show a seven per cent jump in the number of Britons holidaying in the region helped boost the economy by a massive £6.4billion (€7.15 billion).
But the region’s boom comes after demonstrations by furious locals against mass tourism in hotspots including Barcelona, Bilbao and Palma on the island of Majorca (Mallorca).
Official figures from the Costa del Sol’s tourist bureau show the number of tourists exceeded seven million for the first time on record this summer.
And the additional visitors, from Scandinavia and Germany as well as the UK, helped boost employment by eight per cent.
The numbers were reported in The Olive Press, an English language newspaper based in Malaga, which quoted tourism boss Elías Bendodo as saying this summer had been “the best in history”.
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But despite the prosperity experienced on the Costa del Sol, in some areas of Spain tourists are being accused of “invading” and being told to “go home”.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Palma last month to protest against unchecked tourism and chanted slogans including “tourists go home” and “without limits, there is no future”.
Activists said Majorca’s dependance on tourism was not sustainable, and the island was being overrun with visitors, which was impacting local jobs and housing for residents.
Campaign spokeswoman Margalida Ramis said: “The Balearic Government must be more sensitive to finding alternatives.”
Majorca is home to the resort town of Magaluf, which attracts thousands of tourists every year.
Research published by the Balearic Institute of Social Studies (IBES) in September claimed 56 per cent of people it surveyed said too many tourists came to the islands in the summer, regardless of how much money they spent.
IBES said the rate was 53 per cent in the previous year, and has been rising every year since 2013.
The rate for Palma was higher than the average for the Balearic islands, IBES said, with 63 per cent of those interviewed saying tourist numbers were excessive.
Director Gonzalo Adán said there had been a “progressive loss of perception of environmental quality” in recent years, “which has been accentuated this year, and which is attributed almost exclusively to tourism”.
In August, groups of anti-tourist protestors descended on the beach at Barcelona waving banners which read: “We don’t want tourists in our buildings!
“This is not a beach resort!”