Marbella anxiously awaits the antidote to Jult [you try saying July with half a gram up your nose] which was slow month tourist-wise, with not too many famous faces around either. Now the town is getting ready for the arrival of the Saudi royal family, collectively one of the world’s biggest spenders.

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[T]he best moorings in José Banús port are already being prepared for the arrival of some of the Saudi royal family’s boats (one of them has a permanent base here) and the main jewellers and luxury article shops have already served the first wave of Saudis. It’s estimated that 1,000 members of the Saudi aristocracy are arriving about now on the Costa del Sol.

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If the king does turn up, his visit will give Marbella and the rest of the Costa del Sol a much-needed injection of money. On previous visits, the Saudi court has spent about five million euros a day on average (on hotels, restaurants, petrol stations and shops).

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The Saudi royal family’s palace El Rocío is a fortress which dominates a large part of the Marbella coastline from its vantage point. In 2001, King Fahd spent an estimated 125 million euros on renovating this architectural jewel which now has nine small palaces to house the large Saudi royal family. The remodelling of the palace, located on the Golden Mile next the the mosque which the king ordered built, was a mammoth task. The whole complex was modernised in less than two years and and it is now an architectural dream that few westerners have seen close-up.