Editors Desk, March 2010
Recently, British tv saw fit, once again, to turn the spotlight on the worn out cliché of the Costa del Crime, which of course turned out to be a non-event. Apart from the questionable entertainment value of beating this skinless drum, you would have to say that the idea is to put people off coming here either for holidays or, in many of our readers’ cases, a longer stay. Gladly this is not something that people are falling for.
The current financial downturn added to the huge numbers of people who have lost employment within the last year will, and indeed is, having an effect on this part of the world.
Tourist numbers fell by around 9% last year as a direct result of the recession, incidently a drop four times the number from 2008, which was the first year in which holidaymaker figures had fallen for decades.
This is not a reason for us all to head to the nearest cliff edge, Spain saw 52.2 million visitors arriving here to spend their holidays or stay, according to recently published research by the ministry of industry, tourism and commerce.
Brits are again top of this list as Spain’s largest number of foreign holidaymakers, and although numbers fell from 15.5 million in 2008 to 13.3 million in 2009, this is an incredible amount of people, and an enormous opportunity for existing business.
Germans, are the second largest national group, and account for nine million, a fall of around 11 per cent on the year before, followed by eight million French who’s numbers fell by close to 3 per cent on the 2008 figures.
The report suggests that normal holidaymakers spent around €922 each on their visit, if you take the Brits, Germans and French alone, the total spend for these three groups in excess of €27 billion euros in 2009. Take a moment to digest the numbers which includes accommodation, food and souvenirs.
Now, this year, the central government is set to hand over 72 million euros to the regional governments of the Comunidad Valenciana, Andalucía, the Balearic and Canary Islands in order for them to improve infrastructure and facilities to promote both tourism and employment. This magnificent sum represents just 0.25 per cent of the income from the previous year, and if we assume that taxation was set at around 10 percent, that leaves a nice little 9.75 percent or €2.73 billion euros, going elsewhere. Remember this is only the Brits, Germans and French spending, the actual number of visitors was 52.2 million or €48 billion euros of spend. Their figures, not mine!
On the other side of this argument, Guardia Civil officers intercepted two rubber rafts carrying 27 North African immigrants whilst patrolling the Almería coast last month. One of the rafts, which was not in safe conditions to sail in, was carrying 19 men, all thought to be from Algeria or the Sahara desert. All 27 would-be migrants were checked and found to be in good health, despite their ordeal on the open seas.
Given the figures above it’s hardly surprising that the world’s poor want to move here, the missing money (sic.), funds social programmes, what else would you expect from a socialist government, so meagre is this help, that some the recipients will inevitably turn to crime to supplement their income.
This is the real ‘Costa del Crime?.
Welcome to Streetwise magazine, welcome to March 2010!
