Our question has a trick. We propose it in view of a headline that we found yesterday on the Euronews travel page. “Benidorm, discover good food and adventure sports in the most misunderstood city in Spain,” says the British media. Invited by a hotel establishment in the city, the journalist Charlotte Elton considers that Benidorm has an old image problem, especially in England, “the source of most of the worst-behaved tourists in the city.”
However, on her visit to a destination “famous for its wild parties and cheap alcohol”, the reporter discovers that “there is much more to the city on the Costa Blanca than stag parties and sunburned Brits”. Specifically, the article tries to dismantle a couple of sambenitos that accompany Benidorm: that its concentration of skyscrapers make it a hostile urban environment and that it eats fatally.
In Alicante we meet Barbara and Jim. They are Scottish and we are interested in your opinion on this. They landed in the city a week ago to visit their son, a student who is living his Erasmus year at the University of Alicante. It is the first time they have come and, together with him, they have toured the Costa Blanca, they have visited Valencia, and they confirm two things: that the image of which the Euronews report speaks is widespread in his country and that, as concludes the journalist, it is not justified.
“We had never thought of visiting this area because, sadly, we tended to think of drunken Brits and English breakfasts,” they tell us. But they have enjoyed a much more relaxed stay and much more beautiful places than they expected. His son has made so many friends that he regrets that he will soon finish the course and promises to return every year. They are convinced to return and agree to learn some Spanish.
We return to the report by Charlotte Elton, who cycles through the Sierra Helada natural park, walks to the Benidorm cross -“an imposing crucifix installed in 1961 by locals dismayed by the presence of bikini-clad tourists”- and visits a couple of quality restaurants, as well as enjoying good tapas in the old part, “although fans of fish
He even boasts of having enjoyed the best paella of his life at the Ulia restaurant, overlooking the Poniente beach, where many celebrities apparently go, including Elon Musk himself.
The truth is that, attracted by the sun and cheap alcohol or seduced by the various charms of the city, after a few months of doubts, the sunny spring has made British visitors exceed, for the first time, the number of visitors registered at this same time in 2019, in the record year leading up to the pandemic.
According to the figures provided yesterday by the Hosbec employers, hotel occupancy breaks the records of that year and marks maximums in all tourist destinations in the Valencian Community during the second half of April. And Benidorm recovers the market that has resisted since the recovery from the pandemic and the British once again reign in the market with a 43% share and surpassing the data for 2019 for the first time, with 84.8% occupancy, almost a point above.
All the occupancy forecasts have been met “and the hotel industry in the Valencian Community can affirm that it has definitively overcome the coronavirus crisis,” according to Hosbec. Valencia city reaches 86.9%, 3% more than in April 19. It does not reach the degree of Gandia, the destination that registers the best data, 92%, with a spectacular growth of almost 18 points.
And according to the forecasts derived from the confirmed reservations, the occupation of May -with several festive bridges- will consolidate the growth trend, pending the definitive confirmation of the data.