FINESTRAT CAUGHT THE TRAIN BENIDORM MISSED

WHILE there’s no doubting Benidorm’s leadership in Costa tourism, the town definitely missed a very important train that neighbouring Finestrat had the foresight to jump on three decades ago… and it's now bearing its fruits.

We're talking about shopping. There’s no way Finestrat with just La Cala bay could fight the giant on the beachfront, but when the Puig Campana town decided several decades ago that an industrial estate was a good project and Benidorm snubbed the idea, little did Finestrat realise what an important decision had been made for the town.

Benidorm was already overwhelmed with development at the time, but apartment blocks were raking in all the cash, so those were the projects getting the go-head. The only ‘industry’ that deserved mention was tourism.

La Cala industrial estate began as a small complex, but the arrival of Carrefour in 1989 – unable to find a suitable and affordable piece of land in Benidorm – was the first turning point for Finestrat’s commercial success. The hypermarket is known as Benidorm-Finestrat, but it is entirely built within Finestrat's boundaries.

By then, alarm bells should have started to ring in Benidorm council, but tourism-only was still the way to go. A shopping centre was out of the question, especially when the powerfull local tradesmen's association strongly opposed the idea.

So in an area with hundreds of thousands of potential shoppers, the opening of a shop- ping mall was expected. Finestrat developers did not have this in mind initially, but four huge empty commercial units behind Carrefour remained unsold. They were joined together and the Centro Commercial La Marina was finally inaugurated in September 2000.

Two years earlier, in 1998, Costa Blanca News was also in full expansion after setting up further editions on the Costa del Sol, Costa Levante and Costa Almería, so we too jumped on the Finestrat bandwagon and moved our main office from Benidorm town centre to the industrial estate to locate our new print works and the editorial offices we still have today (you can see our brand name from the AP-7 motorway as you pass the industrial estate).

In 2011, the shopping area increased to include a new underground car park plus new outlets above.

Last year, electronics giant Media Markt opened a huge store on the estate, but Finestrat commercial boulevard (its new name) has fully blossomed this year that is about to end with three more big names opening stores. Earlier this year, El Corte Inglés opened its outlet store in the new unit of La Marina shopping centre, as did British giant Poundland under the Dealz brand. But this week’s opening of the Leroy Merlin mega DIY store and next week’s scheduled opening of Conforama furniture store completed the pack.

As many will probably agree, with nearly all top names and fashion stores located in Finestrat's commercial boulevard (La Marina and surrounding area), the only big name missing is Primark - and that only seems a matter of time.

Benidorm is still struggling to get a shopping centre project built near the AP-7 tolls, but it's all too litte too late. Benidorm shoppers and all those in the surrounding area are now used to shopping in Finestrat.

Indeed, Finestrat has become Benidorm's shopping centre.

But not only that, it has also become the place where Benidorm residents fill up their tanks (cheaper prices than anywhere else in the Marina Baja), go to the cinema and, of course, spend a lot of their money.

Benidorm still has the hotels, the bars and the best beaches, but we can't afford to underestimate the tourist attraction of shopping. After all, nowadays travel agents (a few still exist despite website bookings) are openly advertising ‘Christmas shopping weekends’ in London, Paris and New York.

So will commercial interest eventually make the holiday destination Benidorm-Finestrat – much in the way Alicante airport is now officialy called Alicante-Elche? Who knows.

It seems unlikely, especially among the British media, who only seem to recognise the existence of Benidorm in the area. A fact proven in the Jávea/Benitachell blaze in September, which many UK newspapers, and even TV channels, reported as ‘on the outskirts of Benidorm’.

Indeed, Benidorm has something for everyone - unless you want a decent day's shopping.