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There is currently a debate raging about the future of Mojácar’s tourism.

To understand the debate, you must understand that Spain attempts to quantify tourism into neat little socio-economical blocks, which academics can then pigeonhole into whatever half assed plan the politicos come up with.

So we have many different types of “theoretical” types of tourism, such as turismo rural, where people go and stay in a rural hotel; turismo gastronomico, which are tourists attracted by the cuisine of a place – you can break down these budding gourmands into such categories as Neo-alimentación, where the gastropod travels far to go to a nouvea cuisine restaurant (think of the sort of person who goes to Barcelona just to try out El Bullí) or Tradicional, where people travel to Garrucha just to try the gambas, or Los Gallardos for the gurullos. Or you may have Ictioturismo, anglers; turismo social, where people go on holiday to help the less fortunate; etc. All attempts to work out why you spend your money travelling, in an attempt to lure you into a certain resort. The best, to my mind, is turismo residencial, residential tourism: people who buy holiday homes here for their holidays.

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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/

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.

A recent survey by consumer group OCU of 150 airports across the world (10,000 people were asked about their experiences) shows that Almería airport is as bad as Mexico City airport, or Rio de Jainero airport, for theft from luggage.

What isn’t explained is if this means that Almeria is surprisingly high in thefts, or Mexico city astoundingly low. But it seems that around 7% of passengers to LEI can expect to complain about missing or damaged luggage.

Another interesting stat thrown up by the survey is that obviously locked, or vacuum packed luggage (you’ve seen those machines in airports that cover your suitcase with wrap) are almost twice as likely to be broken into as non secured luggage.

In the first three months of this year, it appears that 10 suitcases have been officially declared stolen from Almeria Airport and compensation paid out. 20$ a kilo if uninsured is the going rate for a suitcase.

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).

INE – the government number crunchers – have released their monthly tourism report for Almería. 85.115 tourists stayed in the province during March – 32,000 less than March 2007, 10,000 less than just two years ago. (source: Ideal)

What’s worse, as tourism figures pointed out, is that Easter, typically a strong period, fell during the end of this month.

Interestingly enough, out of these figures, 60.857 visitors were Spanish, and just 11.944 foriegn.

Actually, I’ve just been looking at the holiday figures for Almería, broken down into the four main holiday areas (Albox, for some reason, does not appear). Mojácar, for example, has had a better April than last year, but is still 50% down on 2006 figures. But the surprising thing is the difference between Spanish and foreign travellers for some area – in Roquetas del Mar, for example, just 1 in 10 of every tourist is a non-Spanish national. Hmm.

Hmm. Let’s graph this, for easy reading:

Well, Níjar is steady, but Roquetas seems to have seen the boom years come and gone – it’s now staying alive by being the Andalucian resort of choice for OAP’s on IMSERSO trips. 13 hotels affiliated to this scheme, last time I looked. Full board for 100€ a week? I’ll have some of that thank you – eh, Maria, look at all these guiri bars, I’ll stay well away from them, thank you.

And so we wakes up to news that the UK is facing a hung parliament, and the possibility -watching a very tired Mandelson spar with Paxman about it now- of Brown hanging on via a LD coalition.

Terrible news for Spain, as the pound plummets on the news – from 1.19 last night to just over 1.15 over night. Think it´s going to go back up in time for the holiday season?

quite literally, he was blocking the door. I politely tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to move aside, and as he swung round and glared at me I did a double take.

He was there chatting to Martin Soler (Innovacion), Luciano Alonso (Turismo), Usuero  from the Diputacion and a few local mayors. Had I been a suicide bomber I could have done quite a bit of damage.

Couple of swarthy looking fellas in suits stepped forwards, so I muttered my apologies and scarped. I was going to ask for an autograph but as soon as he realised I was a furriner he seemed to blank me.

He was in Mojácar (the Parador) presenting a new €90,000 marketing campaign for the village. (I had a ticket, sent personally to me from Almería Conserjeria de Turismo, since I’m an important businessman ). The money will be spent on a little TV ad that will be broadcast on local TV across Andalucia and some of the neighbours. A couple of journalists also get a free holiday in Mojacar.

Yadda yadda, aren’t we great, vote PSOE you ungrateful little Almerienses.

Read more about it here.

Sharp eyed readers will  have noticed that I am currently in the UK, on a mix of business and pleasure (back soon!).

Currently ensconced in the Cotswolds, I have taken advantage of my free time to have a look around and see how the credit crunch is affecting people.

Well, Cirencester seems fine. Cheltenham Spa has a few shops missing. Gloucester high street looks like we’re four years into the main recession, but on reflection I think it’s always looked like that. Wales seems to be coping all right, with the occasional “black tooth” of an empty Woolies.

However, what has struck me is the catering trade.

I’ve had cause to comment before that it’s difficult now to have a bad pub lunch in the UK. Competition is so fierce that bad pubs either go down the footie route (in which case I avoid them) or close. The current credit crunch seems to be making this even more so. All the food I’ve had so far, the menus I’ve examined, the windows I’ve peered through, all seem to be of well planned, high quality food. And cheap.

On my first night here, I ordered a takeaway pizza over the net. Cost? £9,99, including free garlic bread and free delivery within 20 minutes to my front door. For a large pizza, that means I get breakfast included. Tasty, too. I can’t help comparing it to a recent €11 pizza that I had to drive to Garrucha for. That didn’t have garlic bread included.

A pub lunch for 3? £30. Three main courses, coffee, and a bottle of Australian plonk. The normal price for a 2 course pub lunch around here seems to be £5-£7.

I’m seeing a pint of Ale for £1,95. Lager for £2-2,20. John Smiths for £2,50. Three bottles of mixer (Bacardi Breezers, Smirnoff Ice, etc) for £5.

With the current exchange rate, that’s cheaper than Spain.

So, now that people aren’t getting the cheap booze, why are they going to come to our little corner of paradise? Ah, the sun! The beach!

Hang on…. I just remembered. The Spanish have decided to knock all the chiringuitos down, so you have to walk 500m (usually across busy roads) to get to proper bars and restaurants that make you put a shirt on to get a beer. Unless the mayors cousin is still allowed to run his incredibly expensive beach restaurant. And you can’t take booze to the beach with you. So most people will stay around the hotel pool.

Will they come for the golf? Well, probably, but with the cost of golf being as it is nobody is going to leave the resort.

Nightlife? What nightlife? It’s all closed at 4, drinking in the street is forbidden, hotel and rentals are astronomical in the summer leaving less cash to spend in the bars and you can’t get a taxi. Hopefully Mojacar Ayuntamiento will run the Buho Bus again, but if they can’t even afford to pay their staff bill they may struggle in subsidizing it.

My gut feeling is that unless the local authorities get their acts together, we are looking at the last summer influx of younger tourists this year. Then they’ll be off to wherever Ryanair is flying cheapest to with sun and lax copper. Bulgaria? Morrocco? Who knows?

After reading a large and long press release, I have nothing to add to the headline apart from the fact that this is probably an excuse for a jaunt by the “good ol’ boys” from the Junta. Jolly good!