THE BEST FINANCE NEWS ON PAGES 30 34 Issue No. 1950 17 - 23 November 2022
COSTA DE ALMERIA • EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
SPAIN’S king, Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited Macael on Friday November 11 to present the Premios Macael awards for 2022. As Don Felipe pointed out, “For me, this is the first time,” before adding, “but not for her,” referring to 2002 when the then Letizia Ortiz, a TVE television an nouncer, presented the awards ceremony. The regional president, Juanma Moreno, Industry minister Reyes Maroto and the central government’s delegate to Andalucia, Pedro Fernande, were amongst the 650 people present for the gala, considered the national marble sector’s most impor tant promotional event. The King emphasised the challenges that the marble industry has had to face. “For instance, the irruption of the pandemic, Brexit, the Ukraine invasion or energy prices, a phenomenon which, as we well know, has brought levels of inflation un heard of for decades,” Don Felipe said. Despite these problems, the King referred to the mar ble industry’s capacity for re sponse which, he stressed,
Photo credit: Macael town hall
ROYAL VISIT GALA OCCASION: King Felipe and Doña Letizia presented the Premios Macael awards.
had been key to adapting to the new scenario. “In 2021, Spain was the world’s seventh largest natu ral stone producer and the sixth most important ex porter,” Don Felipe pointed out. Andalucia had the largest number of marble compa nies, of which almost 90 per cent were located in four municipalities, with Macael accounting for practically half of the total, he added. The King also expressed optimism: “The natural stone and marble sector have an extraordinary future, espe cially for the areas where they carry out their activi ties,” he said.
High season success TOURISTS gave Almeria top marks this summer, with only Cordoba and Sevilla doing better. Participants in an Andalucia Statistics and Cartogra phy Institute (IECA) survey gave Cordoba and Sevilla 8.8 out of 10, followed by Almeria and Cadiz with 8.5. Visitors also told IECA they were impressed by the attention and treatment they received in Almeria Province, together with its scenery, national parks, safety, health service and cultural heritage. Twentyfive per cent said that the attention they received was better than they had anticipated al though 11 per cent considered that prices were worse than they expected. Andalucia received 11 million tourists in the third quarter of 2022, of whom 37 per cent lived inside the region. Thirtyfour per cent came from other parts of Spain, while 22 per cent were from EU member states and the UK, with 6 per cent from other coun tries.
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