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One of Ferran Adria's famed dishes, picture by Francesc Guillamet
Spain has launched a new campaign featuring famed chef Ferran Adria (his Michelin star restaurant “El Bulli” is ranked as the best restaurant in the world according to Restaurant magazine) in a bid to reinvigorate its tourism industry.
Tourism authorities launched their “I need Spain” campaign with Adria as their “Tourism Ambassador”, which they hope will be seen by 400 million people in 40 countries.
“The essence of the campaign is the Spanish lifestyle, which attracts more than 50 million tourists a year,” the tourism ministry said in a statement.
Despite this large number of tourists, last year Spain suffered an 8.7 per cent drop in foreign tourists due to the global slowdown, and has also suffered from increased competition from other cheaper destinations such as Turkey and Egypt; so it is understandable that the authorities are keen to reinvigorate tourism in the country.
Barcelona photo by Flickr User Jsome1
Year-round flights between London City Airport and Barcelona are being re-introduced by British Airways. The service was previously run only in summer but will now resume at the end of the month and will continue all year.
An extra Saturday morning service will be introduced in May, bringing the total number of flights to seven a week.
The expanded Barcelona capacity comes in addition to the start of flights to Majorca and Ibiza in May and an existing service to Madrid.
Luke Hayhoe, commercial manager for BA CityFlyer, the wholly owned BA subsidiary which will operate the services, said: “The Spanish destinations are proving extremely popular from London City Airport. Barcelona has traditionally operated as a summer only destination but there is a big demand from both business and leisure passengers for us to continue through the winter.”
Holidaymakers to Turkey face paying more for tourist items, despite normally being seen as a value destination outside the eurozone. While the Turkish lira has weakened by more than seven per cent against sterling in the past year, a new Post Office Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer reveals a price lift of almost 44% for meals, drinks and other holiday items. Spain emerges as the cheapest eurozone destination – placed fourth overall in the Barometer and showing a price fall of 30% for the same items surveyed a year ago.
Overall, tourist costs are down in 17 of the 25 destinations previously surveyed, with some of the biggest falls in Bulgaria, Mexico, Mauritius and Barbados.
Jamaica, Egypt and Dubai top the list of destinations where holidaymakers are financially best off thanks to a strengthening of the pound over the past year. Tourists will receive over 21% more Jamaican dollars, almost 14% more Egyptian pounds and 12.6% more UAE dirhams compared to January 2009, according to the annual Post Office Travel Services Holiday Money Report.
Post Office head of travel money Sarah Munro said: “Judging by the price rises recorded in our latest cost comparison survey, Turkey is unlikely to be the cheap destination that it was just a couple of years ago when the Post Office barometer identified the country as a best buy.
“For 2010 our shopping basket of eight tourist staples indicates that Turkey is now 68% more expensive than Spain.
“The eurozone looks to be striking back after the battering its resorts took in 2009 when Post Office euro sales were down over 14%.
“This meant that although the euro remained our bestselling currency by far, accounting for a dominant 72.2% of our travel money business, its share reduced by over two per cent compared with 2008.
“However, the Post Office Worldwide Holidays Costs Barometer research has revealed an underlying reduction in eurozone prices and, when you add the improved exchange rate to this, the outlook looks relatively sunny for UK holidaymakers.”
Owners of Florida properties who offer last minute deals and special offers are pushing prices down, according to an owner who has complained that some weekly rates advertised in Holiday Villas and Cottages magazine and on VillaSeek.com are too low. In emails to us he wrote:
“Having read your magazine in our doctor’s surgery I was shocked to see that it was full of bargain basement Florida villas whose owners are literally giving their beautiful homes away. As we don’t discount or charge cheap prices we do not feel that this sort of magazine which has such cheap villas would be a suitable place to advertise our home.”
And:
“The rates were, to put it bluntly, scandalously low. This is the mindset of villa owners who think that ‘anything is better than nothing’ but that sort of marketing encourages haggling and bargaining, and pushes prices even further down.
It also attracts the sort of people who DON’T respect your home as they have paid so little that they think that the villa owner is made of money in order to be able to subsidise their holiday – and the guest is laughing all the way to the bank as they spend all the money they have squeezed out of the villa owner on extra park tickets or designer gear.”
For a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom villa in Esprit, Davenport, this owner charges from £599 to £750 per week. Is he correct in believing it’s better to leave the villa empty than offer a last minute price of, say, £300 per week? And is his belief that people looking for a bargain are less likely to respect the house well founded?
Rental prices in Florida have been tending to fall because so much property is on offer and visitor numbers have been dropping. Is this a trend that can be successfully resisted?
Another factor is that lower property prices mean owners who have bought cheaply can offer low rental prices. For instance, our current issue has an ad from Dolby Properties which includes this property:
Highlands Reserve – immaculate 5/3.5 villa with sunny pool. Outstanding rental history. $291,000.
That’s around £180,000 – say £200,000 with taxes, charges and set-up costs. So if you were to rent that out at £395 a week (the sort of ’scandalously low’ figure our emailer has in mind) you would need to sell 31 weeks a year to bring in £12,000. In reality, you would charge more for the summer holidays and Christmas.
Would £12k be enough to pay mortgage, management costs, cleaning, local taxes, maintenance, insurance and all the rest of it? And would you be better off selling, say, 20 weeks at £595 to bring in the same sort of money?
And why is it that the spread between minimum and peak weekly prices is much less in Florida (where the peak price is usually no more than 50 per cent higher than the minimum) than, say, Spain where the top rate is often three times or more?
Let us know your views in the comments section below – whether you are a holidaymaker thinking of renting a Florida property, an owner trying to make a success of renting, or maybe a professional involved in the business.
(Photo from Flickr.com user Terry_Wha)
With all the news about possible high-speed trains running in England, it’s interesting to look at how other countries do it. Spain has been vigorously expanding its high-speed network over the last few years, and by 2010 will have most miles of high-speed track in Europe. Here’s an article from Holiday Villas and Cottages Issue 2, with some interesting tips on how you might use all this (together with a cheap flight-finder), to travel cheaply to a Spanish resort via Madrid:
Would you believe that by the end of next year Spain will have the world’s biggest high speed rail network, overtaking both France and Japan? Or that its existing AVE high speed services are the most punctual in the world, with over 99 per cent of trains arriving on time?
Spain’s first high speed line, from Madrid to Seville, opened in 1992, followed by new high speed services from Madrid to Valladolid, Málaga and, last year, to Barcelona. By 2012 the new line from Madrid to Alicante will be open, and the same year will see the service going international when the line from Barcelona to Perpignan in France opens. That will allow through services to Paris and even, if anyone gets round to organising it, to London. Then, in 2015, a new Madrid-Lisbon line will link the two Iberian capitals.
For anyone on holiday in Spain, the main benefit of the network is probably to make moving around the country easier. But it also opens up the possibility of flying to Madrid and completing your onward journey by train. It will normally be quicker and cheaper to fly direct, but at peak summer travel times air fares to coastal resorts shoot up, while fares to Madrid drop. So if you recoil in horror at the cost of airfares to your chosen resort, try comparing the price of fares to Madrid. And if you don’t like the idea of a train, you could always hire a car in Madrid and complete your journey by car.
You can find Spanish rail timetables and fares at Renfe. Our favourite site for comparing air fares is Skyscanner.net
Despite financial doom and gloom, it seems we’re still making sure we go on holiday. Hurrah! Good for the health; good for the soul.
Nick Ball, editor of a popular guide to Lanzarote, tells us that in the first half of this year, his particular Canary Island – he’s lived there six years – experienced a bumper increase in British visitors.
Nick tells us: “According to research recently released by AENA, the Spanish airport authority, tourist visits from the UK have, in fact, increased by a whopping 15.6% during the first half of this year, in comparison with the same period in 2007.
“The island received 509,755 British guests up until the end of this June (2008).
“Irish visitor numbers have increased, too – with 123,047 tourists from Eire travelling to Lanzarote over the same period.
“This is a rise of 5.4% on 2007 figures – and an indication of the island’s incredible popularity in the Republic – Lanzarote attracts more Irish visitors annually than any other destination in Spain.
“Other key markets, such as the Netherlands, Austria, Norway and Sweden, have also helped contribute to an overall increase in foreign visitor numbers of 5.6% during the first half of 2008. Germany is the only major market returning negative figures – down 13% to date on 2007.
“The Canary Island Tourist Board has also recently reported that the number of Spanish nationals visiting Lanzarote is on the rise, too – it’s gone up 3.7% during the first half of 2008.
“Collectively, these figures represent the best first half year performance that Lanzarote has enjoyed for many years – a trend which, if continued, will see the island break the one million British visitors barrier for the first time since 2003.”
You can find out more about the guide by going to: www.lanzaroteguidebook.com
For an article in issue 68 of Holiday Villas Magazine, Solange Hando headed to Murcia and the Costa Calida, a little-visited region of pristine coastline, lush countryside and ancient villages. Here’s an excerpt, or you can read the whole magazine article:
Spain has a glitzy Costa for every day of the week but the Costa Calida, which has only recently been discovered by foreign tourists, is a leisurely destination for discerning visitors and Spanish families. South of Alicante, in the province of Murcia, the ‘Warm Coast’ is keen to assert its individuality, and with good reason. It claims more sunny days than any other, more than 140 miles of shore fringed by crystal-clear waters and a lush hinterland dotted with historic towns and hill villages tucked among vineyards and citrus groves.
A long forgotten corner of Spain, Murcia is developing fast but, with a few exceptions, high rise sites remain refreshingly sparse, with areas of natural beauty carefully managed and protected. It offers the best of both worlds: a taste of real Spain with delightful holiday villas and amenities on your doorstep.
Ours was a short break so we headed straight for the Mar Menor Golf Resort at Polaris World, where the nine-hole course, open to non-residents, will soon be extended to 18 by the Nicklaus Design team. It plans a total of six prestigious courses, each one unique, ‘challenging and enjoyable’, suitable for all levels and landscaped to enhance the environment, enough to inspire any golfer keen to follow in legendary footsteps.
Duly impressed, the men set off to tackle the course while we vanished in search of the spa. Imagine stepping into a subdued sensuous world of sound and fragrance, closing the door on all your cares as you edge into the vitality pool, feel the warmth of the sauna or the freshness of the ice fountain, then relax in an inner patio straight out of the Arabian Nights – and all this before your treatment even begins.
Then it’s decision time, hot stone, ayurvedic, body wrap, massage or the ultimate age-defying facial? I must admit, my greatest need was for the last option and one hour and 50 minutes of blissful dreams. Cool aloe and spearmint, scented cypress, lavender, sweet almond, frankincense, avocado and more, a gorgeous garden of Eden was at work to enhance my looks, without the slightest effort on my part. My face was sprayed with extracts of ivy, jojoba oil and mallow; my eyes revitalised with an antioxidant mask and my hair massaged with pink mud. Scrubbed, moisturised and smoothed to a polish, I emerged on top of the world, hoping there would be enough time before dinner to wash the mud out of my hair.
Click to read the whole article, or search for a villa in Spain.
The Costa del Sol stretches includes the bustling Torremolinos, Marbella and Fuengirola, but it’s not too tricky to get away from all that and escape the crowds to have another, very different holiday. Not far away from the large developments are small towns with villas, apartments and old converted houses. Our reporter Harry Glass dipped himself into the Andalucian lifestyle – you can read what he got up to in his article on the Costa del Sol.
