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SHOPPING CULTURE WINE CITY TO WINE REGION Take a trip to the historic city of Porto and through the vineyards of the Douro valley See page 24
The Olive Press presents some of the world’s most unusual supermarkets, and find out about the 25th anniversary of a cultural icon
NOVEMBER MARCH 2025
LAP OF LUXURY
Fancy being a hotelier? These stylish multi-million euro hotels all for sale - find out in Catalunya are more on page 20
Billion battle from Booking
SPANISH hotels are gearing up for a $4billion battle with Booking.com. Hundreds of Spanish In what could be one hotels are set to sue gal battles, hundreds of Spain’s biggest le- for a cool holiday giant €4 billion over illegal of hotels are expected dalucia alone. to join a lawsuit. practices The lawyers’ analysis The joint action fered damage worth suggests hotels sufaround 2% of their estimates hotels lost By Walter Finch between 1.65% and The landmark ruling 2.12% of unfair practices fromannual revenue due to opened the floodgates last September has years thesetheir annual revenues during the the giant holiday portal.. clauses were active. for hotels to seek rate had to also be compensation. offered to It meant a hotel earning Under controversial €5 million annualpricing rules it forced and this even included direct Booking.com, It comes after the country’s firms to sign contracts bookings to CNMC the hotel website. finance watchdog ly over a decade might claim €750,000 slapped a record €413 interest ty clauses’ - meaning containing ‘pari- The practice million fine on Eskariam- or around €1 million in total. plus cheaper rates elsewhere.they couldn’t offer European came under scrutiny when the the giant for abusing its dominant market is Court of Justice ruled sition - the biggest po- firms to join expecting around 500 hotel It meant any discount penalty and the first lawsuit or special seasonal could breach competition laws. the clause Now law firm Eskariam in its history. is planned for next year. joint action, estimating is spearheading the Booking.com disputes the billion, with €1 billion a total of around €4 the EU ruling doesn’t cite claims, insisting lost to hotels in Ananti-competitive practices.
See page 11
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Fatal attraction
Valencian president quits as blonde lunch scandal erupts over floods which killed 229
ROMAN BACKING
THE boss of Marbella’s leading hotel group has stepped in to support the Olive Press’ anti-spiking campaign. Puente Romano owner Daniel Shamoon has described it as an ‘important’ message to warn potential victims of the evils of spiking. The father of three, who also owns Nobu and Marbella Club hotels, said ‘we take measures to prevent this from happening’. “I have heard stories of this happening in holiday destinations and lucky we have not had any serious issues at our establishments. “Luckily we mostly have a sit down clientele and we ensure that at any bar areas, there are CCTV cameras, very obviously pointing out, so that certainly is a good deterrent,” he continued. Currently in Antigua, where he is opening a new Nobu hotel with Hollywood star Robert De Niro, he added: “People always need to be aware of what’s going on around them. “Campaigns like this are an important way to raise awareness.”
THE day of reckoning has finally arrived. Valencian President Carlos Mazon officially resigned on Monday, confessing to ‘unbearable’ moments after a poll revealed a staggering 75% of Valencians wanted him gone. But it took the 51’year’old PP politician over a year to do so as he grimly clung to power despite a dozen marches calling for his head over the October 29 DANA floods that killed hundreds. His downfall is the bitter fruit of a political scandal fueled by the devastating flood and one fateful, lingering afternoon with an attractive blonde journalist. The judicial inquest into the disastrous DANA storm, which claimed the lives of 229 victims, reached fever pitch this week as Maribel Vilaplana, the 50-year-old divorcee at the heart of the crisis, was forced to testify. Vilaplana, dodging the angry screams of victims’ families outside the courthouse after months of mass protests (the latest attracting 50,000 enraged citizens), confirmed the explosive details: she was with Mazon,
By Dilip Kuner & Alex Trelinski
who is married with two children, for a prolonged ‘lunch and after-lunch talk’ (sobremesa) at the Ventorro restaurant, while the deadly weather system bore down on the region. The key question haunting the public remains: Why was Mazon, the man responsible for issuing the catastrophe alert, extending an after-lunch talk instead of doing his job? The attractive journalist’s testimony, while highly anticipated, was short on substance, confirming the suspicion that this case has ‘More Sensationalism Than Substance’ (Mas Morbo Que Sustancia). Vilaplana, who is not currently under investigation, claimed she only had ‘personal impressions’ of Mazon’s demeanor. She admitted he received calls - but were those calls about saving the 229 lives, or ordering another bottle of Rioja?
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ANGER: 50,000 people joined a march in Valencia calling for Mazon’s resignation. He complied four days later
Legal experts claim her memory is now ‘imprecise, inexact, and full of gaps,’ a detail the public is already spinning into a spectacular cover-up. Was it the pressure of the moment, or was the memory simply washed away by a boozy, high-stakes midday party? The gravity of the situation is horrifying: Mazon is under fire for potentially instructing officials to actually hold back the alarm, leading directly to the terrifying drownings. In his tearful resignation speech, Mazon admitted:
“I know I made mistakes, I recognise it and I'm going to live with them all my life.” He claimed he didn't know the Poyo ravine was overflowing or the true scale of the tragedy until the next morning. But his mea culpa was immediately savaged. Rosa Alvarez, president of a flood victim association, slammed the speech as ‘painful and undignified’, claiming it was ‘steeped in lies’. Socialist rival Diana Morant rubbed LONG LUNCH: salt in the wound, declaring MaMazon and zon’s fall ‘good news’ and crowing Vilaplana that victim families had ‘claimed the dined scalp’ of the 'worst Valencian presithrough the dent in its history’. afternoon Mazon has fallen, but the scandal conas hundreds tinues. Now, a desperate succession died battle has begun. Juanfran Perez Llorca, the PP secretary general and Mayor of Finestrat since 2015, is already being touted as the favourite to claim ● 7.45AM OCT 29: Spain's weather agency Aemet issues a red alert the presidency. But the miweather warning for 'incredible risk to life' in the Valencia region nority government relies ● MIDDAY, OCT 29: Mazon sits down with the blonde journalist, on the far-right Vox party, Maribel Vilaplana, at the Ventorro restaurant for a lavish workwhich holds the balance ing lunch. of power. They could back ● EARLY AFTERNOON, OCT 29: Catastrophe warnings and data Llorca - or force early reshowing a massive storm surge pile up on desks across the govgional elections to boost ernment, but the crucial public alert is not issued. their own seats! ● MID-AFTERNOON, OCT 29: The DANA storm hits, overMazon, who shamefully rewhelming the Poyo ravine and engulfing towns. Citizens are left mains a deputy, is effectivecompletely unaware. ly shielded from prosecu● LATE AFTERNOON/EVENING, OCT 29: While the death toll tion by legal privilege - even mounts, Mazon and Vilaplana remain in their prolonged ‘soin defeat. bremesa’ - the political leader only fielding a few calls, but cruBut the long shadow of cially, still failing to grasp the gravity of the unfolding disaster. that single, wine-fueled af● 8:11 PM, OCT 29: The Generalitat Valenciana finally issues the ternoon hangs over the enmobile phone emergency alert (ES ALERT), hours after the tire case, proving once and deadly floods began and with many people already dead. Mazon for all that sometimes, a is still MIA - he doesn't arrive at the crisis center (CECOPI) until politician’s biggest danger 8:28 PM. isn’t a political rival - it's ● EARLY HOURS, OCT 30: Mazon claims he only found out a long, boozy lunch that about the 229 deaths and the true scale of the tragedy after the seals his fate. hours of boozy indulgence were over. Opinion Page 6
TIMELINE TO DISASTER