The main tourism area in Calpe occupies a coastal fringe marked by the Ifach Rock, a large formation on a peninsula similar to Gibraltar Rock and other similar elements on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. This coastal fringe shows similitudes with Benidorm, as high hotel and apartment buildings are dominant, but the municipality also has a sizeable number of holiday homes on large lots, on the hills that surround the coastal plain, which is linked to tourism of the more or less permanent presence of foreign residents; these represent most of the local registered population and whose origin makes it a good guess that they settled for reasons linked in a way or another to tourism.

The Rock, the pond behind the hotel area and the coastal cliffs are relevant in ecological and landscape terms, which implies the need for a delicate balance with the urban impact on the environment.

29.718 registered residents in 2011, of which:

–           62% non-Spanish

–           50%  citizens of other states of the European Union

–           15% British

–           13% Germans

–           6% Romanians.

By large age groups, only among those under 16 years are Spanish citizens a majority. Among registered residents over 64 there are nearly five times as many foreigners as Spanish persons.