Tourist warning as Spanish city ‘closing off’ hotspot to charge holidaymakers for visit

Travel

José Luis Sanz, the mayor of the popular tourist destination Seville in the Anadalusia autonomous community of Spain, stated on Wednesday that he has already “decided to enclose” the space of the monumental Plaza de Espana and charge “between three and four euros” (as much as £3.36) for visits by tourists. The money collected will go towards paying for “24-hour surveillance” in the enclosure and permanent conservation work. In an interview on Cadena Cope, Sanz has again defended his proposal to close the complex – the open-air space between the balustrade of access and the benches of the provinces – and charge an entrance fee to tourists. Those who can prove that they live in the city or were born in the province – and can prove it – won’t be asked to pay the new fee.  The City Council, the owner of the space, made a similar proposal several months ago. The revenues would be distributed, the local PP government said, with 75 percent of the total to be allocated to the municipal coffers and 25 percent to be destined to the state, guaranteeing free public access to the state offices of the complex. These offices house the headquarters of the Government Delegation in Andalusia, the Subdelegation, Migration Services, the Hydrographic Confederation of the Guadalquivir (CHG) and the Army’s Land Force Headquarters.Alongside the surveillance service, the plan is also to open a permanent restoration school or workshop for this emblematic monument of Seville, protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest, which is currently fully accessible to the public. The central government, formed by the PSEO and Sumar, however, flatly rejected the proposal, warning that it is a “privatisation” of public space. Mr Sanz claimed on Wednesday that the central government, beyond rejecting the idea, had not provided any economic “alternative” to pay for 24-hour surveillance of the monument and permanent restoration work. He stated that, as mayor, he had already “decided” to implement “a ticket” for access to the square space belonging to the Town Hall.Mr Sanz said: “I want to charge a fee to those who visit the square space. The building is another story”. He assured that the Town Hall can “enclose” the space in the square that belongs to it, something he hopes to do when he has a “defined project”, which he said is already being drawn up.He recalled that the accesses to the Plaza de Espana already have “two lateral closures” on the Avenida de Isabel la Catolica, to which the monument opens, so that “it would only be necessary to close it at the front”, with an installation that “already exists” but requires completion. Additionally, having recently stated that in 2025 – after the next edition of the Iconica music festival that is held every summer in the Plaza de Espana – he would open “the debate on the continuity or not” of the event, Mr Sanz showed on Wednesday that he is “in favour” of the local citizens enjoying “this unique space”.“I see it as a good thing that this type of activity is organised in the Plaza de Espana”, he said, stressing that the festival is “under the inspection of the Town Planning technicians”.He also defended that the Plaza de España is an “ideal” enclave for the “great museum space” which, in his opinion, the city needs, once again asking whether “it makes sense” for the monument to house state offices because, from his point of view, “it only makes sense” to keep the Captaincy General’s Office, the headquarters of the Army’s Land Force, in the monument, in terms of administrative offices.

Majorca in crisis with bars at risk of going under as tourists snub island

Travel

Hundreds of bars and restaurants in Mallorca are facing imminent closure following the worst season since Covid and tourists tightening their belts.The warning has come from the restaurant association, PIMEM-Restauracion which says their members are being strangled by three essential factors – the lack of qualified personnel, the increase in staff and activity costs and a drop in sales.Its president, Cesar Amable says the increase in travel prices – especially for plane tickets – and accommodation has hit its sector and other mainstays of the complementary offer such as commerce this summer.”The average stay has been shortened and the budget of tourists has been limited, thus penalising the extraordinary expenses of the trip, a situation that has ended up confirming the least profitable season in recent years, a pandemic period aside,” he said.Restaurateurs are demanding the creation of their own hospitality agreement that differentiates their conditions from those of hoteliers, as is already happening in other regions of Spain such as La Rioja, Madrid and Guipuzcoa at the provincial level.The salary increases, they say, are unaffordable for a sector that this season has seen its turnover fall by around 20% compared to last season.Thus, they have explained that the collective agreement has increased staff expenses by 25.3% since 2018, while the price of menus has risen by 10% in the same period.”There is a huge gap between hotels and restaurants; I think it’s very good that hotels raise prices as much as they want to raise them, but there are many things that differentiate us,” said Mr. Amable who warned that the drop in income this season will probably result in an early closure of many businesses located in tourist areas of Mallorca and the rest of the archipelago.”Unless a new agreement was made, he warned: “We restaurateurs have a very bad future.”Mr. Matas said they had been pressing for an agreement of their own for the last 15 years but nothing had happened.”The situation since then has worsened a lot and restaurants are being strangled,” he added.

Majorca in crisis with bars at risk of going under as tourists snub island

Travel

Hundreds of bars and restaurants in Mallorca are facing imminent closure following the worst season since Covid and tourists tightening their belts.The warning has come from the restaurant association, PIMEM-Restauracion which says their members are being strangled by three essential factors – the lack of qualified personnel, the increase in staff and activity costs and a drop in sales.Its president, Cesar Amable says the increase in travel prices – especially for plane tickets – and accommodation has hit its sector and other mainstays of the complementary offer such as commerce this summer.”The average stay has been shortened and the budget of tourists has been limited, thus penalising the extraordinary expenses of the trip, a situation that has ended up confirming the least profitable season in recent years, a pandemic period aside,” he said.Restaurateurs are demanding the creation of their own hospitality agreement that differentiates their conditions from those of hoteliers, as is already happening in other regions of Spain such as La Rioja, Madrid and Guipuzcoa at the provincial level.The salary increases, they say, are unaffordable for a sector that this season has seen its turnover fall by around 20% compared to last season.Thus, they have explained that the collective agreement has increased staff expenses by 25.3% since 2018, while the price of menus has risen by 10% in the same period.”There is a huge gap between hotels and restaurants; I think it’s very good that hotels raise prices as much as they want to raise them, but there are many things that differentiate us,” said Mr. Amable who warned that the drop in income this season will probably result in an early closure of many businesses located in tourist areas of Mallorca and the rest of the archipelago.”Unless a new agreement was made, he warned: “We restaurateurs have a very bad future.”Mr. Matas said they had been pressing for an agreement of their own for the last 15 years but nothing had happened.”The situation since then has worsened a lot and restaurants are being strangled,” he added.

British tourists compare deserted Tenerife to Turkey amid claims of soaring holiday costs

Travel

UK holidaymakers in Tenerife have raised the alarm, claiming the Canary Island is “dead” and even more deserted than Turkey. This comes after viral images of empty Turkish beaches, hotels, streets and restaurants were widely shared.British tourists have voiced their concerns about the current state of Tenerife, drawing comparisons with Turkey.Holidaymakers from the European Union have taken to TikTok to share footage of the eerily quiet streets of Tenerife. One tourist described the island as “dead”, even quieter than Turkey, which has been labelled as “finished” due to skyrocketing prices.She expressed her shock, saying: “Everybody is saying how quiet Turkey is this summer but, honestly, what is going on with Tenerife? “.”There’s not a soul in sight. I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been to both Turkey and Tenerife and, honestly, I would say that Tenerife is so much quieter.”, reports Birmingham Live.In response to the video, one person commented: “It’s too expensive now to go to Tenerife.”However, not everyone agreed with these observations. One visitor remarked: “I’m here now – it’s rammed.”Another pointed out: “Kids back in school, plus going abroad is so expensive now. People can’t afford it.”A third chimed in, stating: “Tenerife comes alive in the winter months. End of August is always cheaper to fly to the Med in summer.””Tenerife has had its busiest summer since pre-Covid this year. As a Tenerife business owner living in the UK, I know it’s been manic,” another said, rushing to defend the holiday hotspot.The Canary Islands have smashed records with a bumper summer as air travel soars above pre-pandemic levels, according to Canarian Weekly’s latest report. With Spanish aviation hitting a high, August 2024 was a banner month: AENA’s airports saw a whopping 32 million passengers, 7.4% up from last year.Leading the pack, Lanzarote, Tenerife North, Gran Canaria, and El Hierro all shattered previous passenger figures.

Spain in crisis as public opinion plummets for tourists ‘who annoy you in your own home’

Travel

Almost a third of people in Spain believe there are too many tourists in their local area, a poll has shown.Nearly half of Spaniards (49 percent) say there are “large” numbers of international travellers where they live, with 32 percent saying there are too many, according to a poll carried out by YouGov.Residents in Catalonia, where the popular destinations of Spain’s Costa Brava and regional capital Barcelona are found, are the most likely to complain of too many tourists (48 percent), YouGov’s polling shows.Issues of overtourism are likely to have resulted in a “sizeable” minority of Spaniards (28 percent) saying they have a negative view of tourists in their country.This compares to second place France where 16 percent have an unfavourable view, 14 percent of Germans, 13 percent of Brits and 11 percent of Italians, according to YouGov.YouGov’s Matthew Smith, Head of Data Journalism, said holiday rentals provoke particular ire in Spain, where the Spanish government recently announced a crackdown on such properties while Madrid said it will pause new licences for tourist flats.Forty-five percent of Spaniards polled said they have a negative view of the holiday lettings industry, with 37 percent saying the sector brings more harm than benefits.Twenty-one percent of Brits polled say the same of the holiday lets industry in the UK, while 43 percent say there are more benefits than harms.This compares to 33 percent in Spain who told the pollster the holiday lets industry does more good than harm.Spanish tourism hotspots including the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands have seen mass protests this summer as locals complain of being priced out of their local housing market as properties are snapped up and converted into holiday lets.Protesters in Barcelona hit the headlines when it was reported some squirted tourists with water pistols, but despite such tactics, a majority of those polled in each country expressed either “a great deal” or “fair amount” of sympathy with overtourism demonstrators.Anti-tourism activist Marta Pérez, 37, from Cadiz, Spain, told The Olive Press mass tourism has pushed rents to unaffordable levels.She said landlords are constantly kicking families out of their homes to make way for tourist apartments. Ms Pérez said the main problem with such flats is the tourists who stay in them annoy you when you’re in your own home, coming and going at night, ringing door buzzers in the early hours and leaving their rubbish in doorways.The schoolteacher said banning holiday lets outright was totalitarian, but suggested regulating them and increasing tourist taxes. She recommended staying in a hotel and not a tourist flat, taking out your rubbish and leaving it in the right bins.Ms Pérez added: “Try as best as you can not to annoy the people who live in the area. We all have to travel more conscientiously on an individual level.”YouGov polled 2,189 Brits; 1,013 adults in France; 2,301 Germans; 1,026 Danes; 1,021 people in Sweden; 1,060 residents in Spain and 1,011 Italians between August 6 and August 20, 2024.

Donald Trump Is Selling A $99 Picture Book. Signed Copies Cost $499

Arts & Culture, Books

Donald Trump is hawking a new book, his third since 2021, called “Save America” that the former president says will give readers a preview of the “incredible things to come.”The tome, released this month by Winning Team Publishing, a conservative publishing house headed up by Sergio Gor and Donald Trump Jr., goes for $99 – an autographed copy is asking $499.The former president touted the book in a video on 45books.com.”Hello to my fellow patriots, my great Americans. We have some very big news. My new book Save America published by Winning Team Publishing is now available,” he said.”White House, our third presidential campaign, and a preview of the best things that are yet to come, We’re going to have incredible things to come. The book is something you’re going to love,” the Republican presidential nominee said.Winning Team Publishing says the volume would make a “perfect coffee-table book” and contains a gallery of “stunning images recapping significant moments of his Presidency.”The cover of the 395-page book is illustrated by the iconic photo of Trump raising his hand in defiance and calling for supporters to “fight, fight, fight” after an attempted assassination during a July campaign rally in Butler, Pa.Trump released a photo book, “Our Journey Together,” in 2021 and “Letters to Trump,” which included his handpicked correspondence with some of the “biggest names in history throughout the past 40 years,” in 2023.Reviewers have panned the book.The Washington Post said it was written in “Trump’s enthusiastic style of capitalization, like a fascist Emily Dickinson.”New York magazine called it a “hastily thrown together collection of photos that didn’t make the first two books and dull captions seemingly lifted from Trump’s stump speech.”

Louth County Council support dyslexia-friendly book initiative

Arts & Culture, Books

Louth County Council Arts Office have announced that every DEIS school and special school in County Louth will receive a set of four dyslexia-friendly children’s books on Irish wildlife.
Dyslexia affects, on average, three children in every class of 24. However, despite a significant increase in the awareness and understanding of the challenges faced, there remains limited resources available for the children themselves.
Through the support of Louth County Council’s Arts Office, one collection of Irish published books, the ‘Nature’s Adventures’ collection, is working to buck this trend.
Speaking about the dyslexia-friendly elements of the book’s design and layout, author Shane Casey says: “They are only slight changes, but they make an enormous difference. We use a combination of special font, colour schemes, and layout to make it easier for children with dyslexia to read. Little things, like avoiding a double space after a full stop, prevents white lightning on the page. Or left aligning the text instead of justifying it, makes it easier to see where the sentence ends, and is less daunting for a young reader than a block of text.”
He added: “The stories themselves are also important. Many of the books used by children with dyslexia can be quite juvenile, and so having stories that are age appropriate is key to encouraging children to read more. For some 11 and 12-year-olds, these were the first books they had managed to read in full on their own, and it gave them the confidence to try other books.”
Shane is a Biodiversity Officer, and with three stories in each book, his series helps to engage children with the wildlife on their own doorstep, from hedgehogs and mayflies to song thrushes and salmon. 
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To strengthen their educational value, the books are accompanied by support materials for teachers (also available as a free download from www.shanecaseybooks.ie for parents).
The four books sponsored by Louth County Council are ‘Nature’s Secret Adventures,’ ‘Nature’s Hidden Adventures,’ ‘Nature’s Marvellous Adventures,’ and ‘Nature’s Incredible Adventures.’ 
Acting Arts Officer, Louth County Council, Moya Hodgers said: “Literature and reading is such a crucial element of arts for children and adults alike. To be able to support an initiative like this helps us to reach out to a specific group, to use these books to inspire their creativity, to show them that art is and should be as accessible to them as everyone else.”
The books will reach the selected schools in coming weeks. 

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Book vending machine unveiled in Hopkinsville, Kentucky

Arts & Culture, Books

Sept. 19, 2024A book vending machine, called the Literary Launcher, was unveiled today by the Christian County Literacy Council and Atmos Energy, according to a report by The Eagle Post.The machine is housed at Visit Hopkinsville in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.”We want our students to be prolific readers, be people who enjoy reading, knowing that reading is a path to their success whatever it is,” Literacy Council Executive Director Francene Gilmer told the news outlet.The vending machine, unded by Atmos Energy, will be stocked with books that students can earn by reading. To receive a book, students must read two books in one week and have their parents bring them to Visit Hopkinsville.