The young Chinese women Emily and CC Liu take portraits of each other from Forat del Dimoni, a small hole located at the beginning of the wall of Tossa de Mar with a postcard background: the beach of es Codolar. They star in a most complete photo shoot… Fifteen long minutes of clicking. Now she is looking at the camera, now at the blue sea, now with sunglasses, now with her hair pulled back, now with her fingers making the victory sign… Each of these moments has its own snapshot, which they review once the session is complete and which they will probably post on social networks afterwards, as thousands and thousands of Asian tourists have already done.
For months, long queues have formed to take pictures in front of this postcard frame, located at the foot of the Municipal Museum, which appeared, along with other spaces, such as the beach or the walled enclosure, in a video clip that the South Korean singer YooA filmed in this town on the Costa Brava. Most of those waiting their turn are young Koreans and Chinese and, although fewer, Japanese or Malaysians.
El Forat del Dimoni is perhaps one of the most popular corners among Tossa de Mar’s Asian visitors, a group that already began to settle in this seafaring town in 2017, after the village appeared in a Korean television series, The legend of the blue sea. The image of two teenagers starring in a love chase through Vila Vella went around the world and became one of the best advertising campaigns that a municipality can have without scratching its pocket. Something similar to what Ava Gardner achieved in 1950 with the filming in Tossa of Pandora and the Wandering Dutchman, key to the rise of tourism on the Costa Brava. A bronze statue of the actress in a viewpoint remembers her.
Recently, two video clips of the South Korean singer have put the municipality back on the Asian map. “The last one achieved 57 million downloads in Asia in a short time”, explains the mayor, Ramon Gascons. The numbers are dizzying, the possibilities that open up with Asian tourism are multiplying and the group’s travel behavior is being studied by tourism managers to get the most out of it. “We are doing a study on habits, consumption, origin, what motivates them, where they stay, what they eat or to find out, for example, why on some days there are no Koreans among the visitors…” he explains Francesc Zucchitello, president of the Professional Association of Hospitality Entrepreneurs of Tossa, who points out that their massive presence in recent months is due to several factors, beyond the series and the video clips. The young Chinese students Chloé and Valentine give hints. “We saw the recommendation of Tossa in the social commerce application Little Red Book, users indicated that it had very beautiful landscapes”, they explain.
The profile of the Asian who visited Tossa this Tuesday is very similar: young people predominate, women, and for all of them Tossa de Mar is just another stopover on their visit to Barcelona. Many have previously visited other European countries, such as France or Italy, or will continue the route through Spain. This is the case of the couple Eva Lpeng and Walle Hao, who will also have visited Seville, Granada and Madrid on their honeymoon trip. “The television series has also been a little to blame for us being here,” she explains after taking a picture of herself in a flowery corner of Vila Vella. Koreans love to take pictures where their idols have gone before. “They are very influenced by the media, series or films shot here”, they say to the Catalan Tourism Agency.
95% come by bus, with those from Sarfa, which in May has 12 connections between Estación del Nord and Tossa. “There are days when we double the journeys”, says a driver. Most arrive on the morning buses and spend half a day or the whole day in Tossa. Those who spend the night there are residual. “We have a reservation from some Japanese, but very few in general,” says the receptionist at the Capri hotel, on the seafront. The taxi drivers, who see them pass by every day, are not much benefited by their presence either. “They leave the station and go safely, they already know where they have to go; every now and then, we make a trip with a clueless person who has missed the bus”, says taxi driver Jose MarÃa González.
They don’t separate from their mobile phones, which they carry with them as a map and where they look through social networks for tourist claims and, even, the photo of what they will order for lunch. In fact, the restaurant industry is the sector that benefits the most from its presence. Eva Roura, from the LluÃs restaurant, is full of praise for this group. “They are very polite, pleasant and very respectful”, he says. “What they like most is seafood”, he says.
