The Impact of Tourism on Benidorm

Map of Benidorm

Before the tourist hype Benidorm was a small fishing village, with a relatively small population - whose main income was obtained through fishing the local coast, the Costa del Sol - but quickly became Spain's biggest holiday resort for people from foreign countries, and at its peak, it was attracting four million tourists each year.Benidorm in the 1960’s

Between 1930 and 1970 it became one of the most visited tourist destinations. The fact that it’s in one of the most southern regions of Spain and is faces the sun is one of the many reasons so many people were drawn to Benidorm. Another reason it became so popular is the fact that it is only a 2-3 hour flight from most places in Europe and it’s cheap and affordable for most families.

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For the majority of the local people tourism is their income in one way or another, with 85% of income being from tourism. Benidorm is the most affluent area of Spain due to tourism. There is loads of work for the local people and most are flexible due to their nature. There is also a sense of globalisation as people get to get a taste of a different culture for example eating in foreign food restaurants.

Overcrowding in Benidorm

There is however some major negative impacts of tourism in Benidorm, for example it is overcrowded, the population has increased from 700,000 to 110,000,00. A lot of the negative impacts effect the local environment such as hardly any of the beach is natural and is constantly having to be replenished due to erosion mainly due to humans. There is also too much rubbish to deal with and roads are congestion due to too many cars and too little busses. Local people who aren’t that wealthy may also struggle to fins houses as house prices have increased due to the high demand for second homes, people are also reliant on tourism and there is a loss of independence.

Over the last few years Benidorm has been trying to shake of the “lager lout” reputation it became to develop mainly due to amount of British tourist go there just to party and become disorderly. Tourism officials decided they did not want that label and wanted to make it more family friendly and are determined to shake the bad reputation they have developed due to the amount of drunken people. There are plans to build more 4-5 star hotels to regain the tourist.

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