Costa bravo!
BENIDORM IS HOL OF PLACE
HOLIDAYMAKER Freda Jackson was left fuming that her Benidorm hotel had “too many Spaniards in it”.
As we told yesterday, the gran, 81, even won compensation after asking why they couldn’t go somewhere else. More than a million
Brits flock to Benidorm every year for a beach-and-booze break.
Here, NADINE LINGE checks out some facts about one of our favourite holiday hotspots...
BENIDORM inspired the hit TV sitcom featuring mobility scooter-riding Madge, played by Sheila Reid. Last month it was revealed the 10th series, which aired earlier this year, will be the last.
Benidorm boasts 330 skyscrapers, the highest number per capita in the world.
They include The Gran Hotel Bali, whose 52 floors make it the tallest hotel in Europe, and the InTempo, a skyscraper once voted one of Spain’s top 10 ugly buildings.
That’s led to the resort being dubbed the “Dubai of Europe” by university professor Philippe Duhamel. He said: “It is unique in Europe, is known worldwide and is a remarkable site for what is understood by mass tourism.”
Before that mass tourism descended on Benidorm in the 1960s, it was a sleepy fishing village with just 3,000 people living there.
Poet Sylvia Plath spent her honeymoon there in 1957, six years before her suicide, and wrote a poem about its “innumberable melons, ovals and balls”.
As fishing catches fell during the 1950s, mayor Pedro Zaragoza decided to turn Benidorm into a tourism hub by replanning the town centre, building hotels and advertising abroad.
Spain had outlawed the bikini, but he got the ban lifted to attract more tourists – making Benidorm the first place in the country where women could wear two-pieces on the beach.
Today there are about
67,000 residents, rising to
400,000 in holiday season.
Benidorm is Europe’s biggest holiday resort, with 5million tourists each year, including more than 1.5m Brits.
After Spaniards, Brits are the second biggest group of permanent residents.
The Spanish use the slang term “guiri” to describe foreigners who come on package holidays, wear socks with sandals, get sunburned and glug back booze.
Stars including Hollywood legend Bruce Willis, singer Julio Iglesias, Corrie’s Julie Goodyear and Royle Family actor Ricky Tomlinson have all been spotted on holiday there.