Benidorm - A World Heritage site?

One academic believes the most famous Spanish resort should be put on Unesco’s list of protected sites, joining the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge and Machu Picchu.  Professor Philippe Duhamel described how the Costa Blanca town’s ‘unique collection of skyscrapers’ makes it the ‘Dubai of Europe’.

At the 12th International Benidorm Tourism Forum this week, he said, “Benidorm is unique in Europe, is known worldwide and is a remarkable site for what is understood as mass tourism.”  Benidorm was a village of just 1,500 people until mayor Pedro Zaragoza Orts recognised its potential in the 1950s. Now, it attracts 500,000 Britons a year to its seventy odd British-themed pubs and ten fish-and-chip shops.  It is sometimes referred to as the ‘Manhattan of Spain’ or ‘Beniyork’ due to the unique skyline formed by its numerous tall hotels and apartment buildings, quite unlike anything else on the Costa Blanca.  The Mayor, Manuel Perez Fenoll, welcomed the proposal from the French academic, saying: “After many years of misunderstanding, there are now a significant number of experts who recognise the Benidorm model.”

Also at the seminar was a professor from the Plymouth School for Business in Devon, Sheela Agarwal.  She told the assembly that; “The city managers will have to reinvent its products if they are to continue to be competitive in the future.”  She also said, “There is no room for complacency.” Another delegate, Ian Yeoman from the Victory University in New Zealand agreed with Argawal by saying, “If the location does not provide what the customer wants in the future, there will be no second chances!  Studies have shown that once the tourists go away and find other places they are unlikely to return.” These were some of the more radical comments that came during the first day of the two day ‘Forum of Tourism’ that analyses various tourist destinations. The experts also emphasized the necessity for ‘The capacity for resistance’ and ‘recuperation’ of tourism. Yeoman told the conference of two different scenes in which the tourism of the future may develop.

In most negative, he emphasized that in the next few years the city may have to cope with the economic downturn in the sector and warned of the inevitable reduction in the numbers of the visitors to Benidorm.  Yeoman’s’ went on to illustrate the effects on tourism of things such as terrorism, food shortages, the energy crisis and the perceived climatic changes, amongst others. The second was an ‘ideal’ world in which terrorism and crime are part of the past and a world that continued to prosper in spite of ongoing recession.  In this scenario, most prominent worldwide economy will probably be China.Today Europe represents 50 per cent of all tourism; in 2050 this figure, he said, could be as low as 28 per cent.  For this reason, the city must invest in the future now!

Yeoman’s demolished some present ‘urban myths’ that all coastal destinations are victims of the globalisation, that they are in decline and that they all have the same problems.   Each one has its own unique solution. President of the World-wide Organization for Tourism, Carlos Vogeler, emphasized the potential of ‘domestic tourism’, not just from this country but also from the ‘block’ of those that surround them as close neighbours. The Counsellor for Tourism, Angelica Such, gave the closing address to the conference and summary of the proposed plans for the next 40 years.