Issue No. 1980
15 - 21 June 2023
COSTA BLANCA NORTH • EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
FREE • GRATIS
BENIDORM is officially the second best tourist destina tion in the world to recover from the Covid pandemic. A report entitled PostPan demic Travel: Unlocking the Secrets to Review Recovery published by YouTrust places Benidorm’s recovery strategy as the second most effective after Paris of the 81 most pop ular international tourism destinations analysed, where only 10 were classed as effec tive. YouTrust compiles 90 per cent of the world’s tourism re views on a daily basis and sources data from global re view sites and opinion databases of 92 per cent of the world’s hotels. The 10 destinations show ing a ‘notable recovery in the volume of opinions’ are Paris, Benidorm, Marseille (France), Maldives, Lille (France), Paphos (Cyprus), Bern (Switzerland), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Amiens (France)
and Valletta (Malta). Regarding Benidorm, the report states that the town “took proactive action to en sure health and safety, thus gaining the confidence of trav ellers.” Mayor Toni Pérez ex plained that up to one month before the national State of Alarm was declared, “we be gan to analyse the risks and prepare contingency and ac tion plans, as our top priority was to ensure the safety of residents and tourists while preserving the Benidorm brand.” The mayor also added that Benidorm’s strategy was so
Image by Benidorm Town Hall
TOP FOR TRAVEL RECOVERY BENIDORM: Town of saints and sinners.
effective and universally ap plauded thanks to the cooper ation between the authorities and the tourism business sec tor, with national and interna
tional organisations mention ing the town as an example of success. Sr Toni Pérez explained that the town’s Covid strategy was
based on “data analysis, ac tive listening, an immediate response focused on physical, health and emotional safety, and the synergy of interests”
of all parties involved. The mayor added that the pandemic “was a crisis situa tion that was negative for a highdensity destination like Benidorm, but we turned it into a nationally and interna tionally recognised opportuni ty.” The Organisation for Eco nomic Cooperation and De velopment (OECD) included the Marina Baixa destination as one of four examples of successful management dur ing the pandemic at its meet ing in Paris in November 2020 together with Finland, Switzerland and New Zealand.