Since the post-war economic boom, the British have ventured abroad for all-inclusive travel of tens of millions. Even at the turn of the century, when it is said that package escapes were in the final stages, half of all vacations were all inclusive, and tour operators reported a recovery in interest in the years before the pandemic. Nowhere did the travel package, as we know, embrace more than in one of Britain’s favorite destinations: Benidorm. In 1950, Pedro Zaragoza, the young mayor of a then sparsely populated fishing town, decided to embark on a transformation of European travel. People relax on the beach on a hot summer day in Benidorm (Photo: Heino Kalis / Reuters) With tuna fishing, its main source of industry, in decline, Zaragoza proclaimed a “wonderful future” for its city and presented a vision of a flurry of tourists and high-rise hotels in its 1955 pamphlet entitled “Benidorm Will Be So”. His vision would come true. Today Benidorm is the New York of coastal cities. 154 largely high-rise hotels compete for the Costa Blanca skyline, many of which block the view of their rivals, such as the rapid influx of tourists and money, mainly from Britain. Spain is the most popular holiday destination for the British. In 2019, the most recent regular year of world travel, 18.1 million Britons visited Spain. This is almost double the 10 million they dared to our closest neighbor, France. He was such an integral part of the British tourist’s big vision for Benidorm that Zaragoza even sent wine from local vineyards to a young Queen Elizabeth II. She never took it upon herself to offer a vacation package. But today the British tide is changing. Spain’s tourism bosses warn that her dependence on the British package traveler is to the detriment of higher paying visitors and her famous Costas have become overly dependent on people escaping the Blighty. Along the beaches and cliffs of the Costa Del Sol – which includes destinations such as Marbella and Torremolinos – there are forecasts for two million fewer visitors from around the world. This gave tourists a reason to go Dutch – or German or French – to avoid an economic slip. Visitors to the UK should not be forgotten, but Tourism Board boss Francisco Salado says “we will launch an unprecedented attack to avoid over-reliance on markets such as the UK”.
More from Long Reads
They spend around € 1.6 million on advertising campaigns across mainland Europe to attract visitors who can keep their wallets looser than us Britons. Official statistics for January show that German tourists spent an average of 17 1,179 (€ 1,410) more than their British counterparts, who spent an average of 35 1,035 (€ 1,410) on average over the same period, according to the Instituto Nacional de Statadistica. They are also visited in increasing numbers. In 2021, visitors to the province of Malaga from Germany increased by 87.6 percent compared to 2020, to 353,431. There were 69 percent more tourists from France than last year, almost three hundred thousand. The number of travelers from Belgium, Denmark and Sweden has also increased significantly. Mr. Salado wants to “place Costa Rica as an interesting destination 365 days a year and inform people not only about our sun and beaches, but also about the sights of rural tourism, gastronomy, culture and golf.” ». This is confirmed by Leire Bilboa, director of Visit Benidorm in Costa Blanca. “Our strategy is to try to find customers who have more budget. In France, we have people from the south of France who come by car, but those from the north of France who come by plane spend a lot more money. “We make offers in northern France where people have more money.” The tourists who spend the most, he admits, are Russians and Algerians, but they are few. The huge number of Britons visiting brings its own problems, admits the local boss of tourism. German tourists may be the ones spending more individually, but they are discouraged by the number of Englishmen. The Spanish tourism industry hopes to attract a new market for visitors to the beaches of Benidorm (Photo: Getty) “In the Balearic Islands there are customers from Germany in one place and customers from the United Kingdom in another, and they do not mix because of World War II and things,” he says. “We are not talking about young people, we are talking about the elderly who at first did not want to interfere when they went on vacation.” Martin Angus has been vacationing here since 2011, when he first visited a conference, and now comes several times a year for a financial break, both alone and with friends. Mr Angus, who lives in Croydon, south London, said: “I’m here with a friend because it’s good for us on a budget. “You can find cheap hotels, food is very cheap, there are many places to have a drink and there is a wonderful tram to explore the wider area that I enjoy. “You can also see all kinds of things: I like to post my ‘scooter of the day’ photos on the internet – all the loved ones roam around on their mobility scooters. It’s a lot of fun at no cost. “ Close your eyes as you stand on Benidorm Beach, nine kilometers long, you will be forgiven if you confuse it with a busy English town center over the weekend – albeit with slightly better weather. The range of bars up to where you can see: British bars, karaoke bars, Tiki bars, drink bars. Further in the city, cafes advertise their full English breakfast for just five euros. No one asks how it is so cheap. This is Britain at sea. Indeed, it was recently named the most “British” resort in Spain. In mid-April, most hotels cost between 30 30 and £ 60 a night, with even the five-star Villa Valencia charging 140 140 a night. But this has given the city a reputation that in the eyes of some people is a problem.
More from Long Reads
When Zaragoza realized his vision, he warned people to ignore the snobbery that such cheap travel would leave the city full of “lager pike”. But the current mayor of the city had to ban people from taking mobility scooters they did not need, due to the number of British-motivated beer runners in the city in the style of Madge Harvery, a chain scooter enthusiast from ITV Benidorm comedy series. Zaragoza has always believed that both ideas of the tourist could sit side by side. He told people to climb to the top of the Sierra Helada, the ridge that rises above Benidorm Beach. From there, his supporters argued, you can see how natural Benidorm remains, thanks to Zaragoza’s insistence that the skyscrapers should be at least seven meters from the sidewalk and that their concrete structure could occupy only 30 percent of the land. in which they were located. were built. The local tourism manager, Ms. Balboa, explains: “There are many Benidorms in Benidorm itself. There are people who are looking for this holiday, who are looking for fun and easy time, but there are also golf courses that we have and good hotels “. Although located in the rugged mountains of rural Valencia, the city itself stretches out with wide, flat sidewalks, ideal for the elderly and the less mobile. During the winter months, and during the long vacant years of global restrictions, it was filled with elderly Spaniards, with Spaniards making up about half of its annual visitors. As a result, Benidorm is turning its attention to health tourism. an activity most often associated with Eastern European destinations. “We have private hospitals where they can do different types of surgery, such as knee problems. “They can get health care faster if they can afford it.” “We have two private hospitals that are of very good quality. These hospitals are in good condition, but they are also a sunny spot so there are plenty of options to stay in a recovering hotel. “We have British people, from Poland, Belgium, Sweden, a lot of people from Northern Europe.” Visitors do business with much faster turnover and lower costs than they would have to pay to be treated privately in many Nordic countries. Visitors stay longer as they recover from joint surgeries related to hip and back problems. Along with those seeking private healthcare, Spain has long been a top destination for retired Britons. A derby the size of Derby has made Spain home to retirees: more than a quarter of the UK’s indigenous people live in twilight years in cities and villages, some of them mostly British. But this image is also trying to shake. The Spanish coast will no longer be the retirement option for the British, with places like Malaga, on the other hand, aiming to become a hub for business and redefine themselves as the “new Silicon Valley”. Forbes and Bloomberg recently ranked the region as one of the top places in the world to relocate for work, and the University of Malaga now has more than 38,000 students enrolled. Malaga has “the highest concentration of museums per square kilometer in Europe”, as well as 300 days of sunshine a year. “The interest has skyrocketed and it’s not just about the weather that so many companies are moving here,” Linus Frejd, a Swedish expatriate who runs the city’s large Ikea, told a local newspaper. 70 years after Zaragoza made his dream like Las Vegas for a busy Benidorm, the crowded Costa of Spain seems to be turning a new angle. It remains to be seen whether the coasts of Mγαlaga, Marbella and Benidorm can be transformed into aristocratic destinations filled with older, richer Northern Europeans. In 1989, Vladimir Reitz, a Russian-British businessman, pioneered a massive package holiday since the end of …
