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Almería feria has kicked off in full style, and fun is being had by all.

Lots of happy photos here, in case you can’t attend in person: http://www.ideal.es/almeria/multimedia/fotos/almeria/61567-inauguracion-feria-mediodia-almeria-0.html.

No need to worry about the food, seven full time food inspectors are on call, examining all the food stalls.

Transparency International, the worldwide anti-corruption organisation, in conjunction with the Fundación Ortega y Gasset, has released it’s 2009 list of the most transparent townhalls across Spain.

Almería is 3rd from the bottom, at 108 out of 109 (only Salamanca and Fuengirola are worse).

El Ejido, for some reason, comes in at nº 57.

The test involves how much municipal information is publicly available. T.I. sent the 110 biggest towns in Spain a questionnaire asking them how they publish over 80 different reports that are supposed to be publicly available; they then investigated to see how easy it was to obtain this information for a member of the public.

Almería didn’t even bother to send the questionnaire back (along with Fuengirola, Salamanca and Valencia).

Full details here: http://www.transparencia.org.es/ITA%20-%202010/INDICE%20ITA%202010%20-%202.htm

Almeria townhall has come up with an interesting tourist concept – it’s launched it’s much announced “Almeriacard”, which gives the holder discounts of between 5% and 20% in shops and establishments across Almeria town.

The idea is that tourists pay either 5€ for a seven day card, or 10€ for a 15 day card, and the money is then used to promote Almería.

Residents of the city can buy a card good for one year for just 10€.

There will also be a new debit card launched, with Cajamar, which offers holders the same discounts without having to buy the “AlmeriaCard”.

It’s an interesting way to offer tourists (and residents) a little “something back”, while at the same time collecting money for further investment in promoting the city. The Mayor has said that he hopes this will be an alternate way of raising extra funds without charging every tourist a minifee, as Barcelona or the Ballearic Islands do.

http://www.turismodealmeria.org/

How lovely.

So, after spending umpteen millions in getting people over here (did I tell you about the flashy “I love españa” and “come to Andalucia” signs on London double decker buses I saw last week? No? I wonder how much they cost) the Junta has decided to save a few pennies by closing down tourist attractions (so there’s nothing cultural to do once the poor sods arrive).

The Alcazaba in Almería will now close on weekdays, and only open weekend evenings.

And the Almería history centre (Yacimiento Puerta de Almería) has suddenly been closed by the Junta, sacking workers with one days notice (it closes tomorrow for good). This after several million euros were invested in the building, which opened in 2006, and aimed to show the history of people living in Almería, from pre-historic tribes to the Moors. (Novapolis.es and other news sources). 10,000 visitors visited in its first year of operation ,according to Ideal, which was more than expected, and which caused the Culture department to say that the centre was a vital link in exporing our past, and a cornerstone of Culture in the province.

A number of other “cultural centres” which opened over the last few years are also expected to be closed down in a cost cutting exercise that will see workers dumped back into the INEM queues, buildings closed and left to moulder, and tourists left to fend for themselves. Ah well- back to the bars, I suppose. I wonder how much all this is saving the state, once you factor in severence pay, upkeep of the (now empty) buildings and unemployment pay?

The latest crime data released by the Jefatura Superior de Policía de Andalucía Oriental suggests that despite the recession, crime across Eastern Andalucia (Jaén, Málaga, Almería, Granada) continues to drop, with 14.06% fewer crimes being committed so far this year over 2009.

The two types of crime with the biggest drops are bag snatching (a 31% drop) and vehicle theft (22% drop).

Better police training, with better cooperation between forces, and better backup from the funcionarios are all being cited as reasons for the drop.

Granada, once known as a petty crime hotspot, is now the third most crime free province in Spain.

(Ideal)

The Spanish Senate’s Committee on Tourism, Commerce and big floppy eared bunnies has agreed to a PSOE backed iniciative to commence a viability study to see if Almería warrants a new Parador hotel.

The motion, which has been around for years, was shot down last year when Parador Hotels published their five year expansion plan, ruling out Almería.

This has not slowed down Senator Asensio (Almería province; he’s also sec gen of the provincial PSOE party) from jumping on what was a PP bandwagon, and forcing the issue back onto the table.

Of course, it’s a table that’s a long way away from the main table, in restaurant terms this table is not just by the toilet doors, it’s actually equivalent to sitting on the restaurant loo eating off a tray; but hey, maybe when the next five year plan is published Almería might be a possible candidate?

The townhall wants to put a Parador in the Alcazaba fortress, arguing that this would be perfect, and it probably would be.

And Almeria continues on yellow alert for rain today, as the met office warns of heavy storms sweeping in from the east.

Looking out of my window right now, I can see what they’re on about…… dark, grey and getting darker!

Old Conmendedor has been rabbiting on about it for months, and eventually it’s arrived:

http://www.turismodealmeria.org/

The all new interactive website for Almeria city.

Two points: First of all, far too many pages are still blank  (Informacion coming soon, that sort of thing), including the much vaunted “Almeriacard”, which was supposed to give tourists access to discounts (and also, no doubt, identify the tourists to the wily tradespeople of Almeria), and secondly, how come a tourism website is only in Spanish?

It’s nicely linked into twitter and facebook, tho’. Fine until the new webmaster decides he’s bored of Facebook and stop posting.

Worth pointing out that if you go to turismodealmeria.com (note the .com) you get a commercial website, which no doubt is anticipating many people forgetting the difference between .org and .com.

Mind you, I never knew that the Nazis gassed 142 Almerienses in their concentration camps. Says here that 252 people from Almería were sent there, and 142 were executed. A sombre pause for thought, although I doubt this statistic will do much for tourism. The monument dedicated to these men and women can be found in the Parque de las Almadrabillas (just next to the Cable Ingles).

Almeria Airport (LEI), according to recently released figures by AENA, “only” lost 9 million euros last year. It’s worth 75 million euros, but has a net debt of around (by the end of this year) 110 million euros.

AENA, a state owned company that runs Spain’s airports, used to keep its accounts locked in a large vault in Madrid, but eventually yielded to public pressure last year and admitted that it was running at an annual loss of around 433 million euros. Only 9 airports in Spain actually make any money.

There’s two ways of looking at this: One is that airports are vital to Spain’s economy and are worth more than they cost. The other is, 433 million euros!

The politicians, after years of Option A) are now veering towards Option B) and are moving towards part privatisation of Spains’ airports. If things happen as expected, the all new AENA will be a SA with about 30% private capital, and “greater” control from local townhalls, Diputaciones and Comunidades. IE, Madrid is starting to think that it’s best to let the Junta pick up the tab, and let private companies in to run all the airport stands.

Of course, once we have a nice new AVE to bring in the customers… possibly the politicians will think twice about having so many loss making airports, when tourists can fly into Murcia (Murcia makes money!) and take a quick train trip to Vera? You won’t even need a rental car, will be the spiel! (You will). And that will allow Almeria townhall to finally extend the town to the east – they’ve been asking for the airport to be moved for years.

Tripadvisor.es recently polled its users on their favourite Spanish destinations (http://www.tripadvisor.es/TCDestinations-cEuroFavorites-g187427)

Almería came in at number 20 (hurrah!), behind Valencia (do pelotas rival paella?) but above Salamanca (which is a medieval Disneyland for soft minded Catholics).

53 hotels found in Almería – none in Mojácar, oddly enough. Ah, right, you have to search for Mojácar. Hmm. Qué hacer en…. Mojácar. Good question. Let’s click and find out.

Whoops! Tripadvisor doesn’t know either, although it helpfully suggests a game of golf at Mojacar Marina Golf (Simply good golf! enthuses Cats_123 from Bangor, back in 2006).

Eeeyup – says here that Restaurante La Capilla is the best restaurant in Mojácar! A hit with the Irish, judging from the comments.

Ah well, back to work.