Fifty years after Common Francisco Franco’s dying, Benidorm nonetheless clings to the mass tourism mannequin it pioneered underneath his dictatorship, whilst protests in opposition to overtourism sweep different Spanish vacation hotspots.
Constructed on bikinis, skyscrapers and bundle holidays, the business reshaped socially conservative Spain’s picture overseas and introduced in much-needed overseas foreign money.
“There are not any automotive factories right here, no cleaning soap factories. What we’ve got is a manufacturing unit of accommodations, eating places and companies that make our guests completely satisfied,” stated Angela Barceló, 72, the proprietor of the Resort Les Dunes within the Mediterranean seaside resort.
Her grandmother opened it in 1957, when Spanish girls wanted their husband’s permission to open a checking account.
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“What Benidorm is at this time is due to the ladies,” Barceló stated, recalling how native males had been typically away at sea whereas girls managed the household property and opened lots of the first accommodations and guesthouses.
A former seafaring village of whitewashed homes and simply 3,000 residents, Benidorm has mushroomed right into a metropolis of greater than 100 skyscrapers whose inhabitants swells to 400,000 on peak August days.
READ MORE: Why Franco made Spain a cheap tourism destination
This transformation was the work of Pedro Zaragoza Orts, Benidorm’s mayor from 1950 to 1966 and an enthusiastic supporter of the ultranationalist Falange motion that backed Franco’s rule.
He noticed overseas tourism as a safer various to seafaring, which had claimed the lives of lots of his family members, or farming.
Bikinis and homosexual bars
When overseas girls started arriving on the seashores in bikinis, Spain’s influential Catholic Church, which was intently aligned with the dictatorship, pushed again.
The bishop of the close by metropolis of Alicante clashed with Zaragoza, who confronted the specter of excommunication, which carried important social stigma on the time.
Franco himself tipped the scales when he despatched his spouse and daughter to vacation a number of instances at Zaragoza’s residence in Benidorm — a gesture broadly seen as a blessing.
READ ALSO: Eight fascinating facts about Benidorm
Zaragoza was additionally very socially conservative however he realised Spain wanted to open up, historian Francisco Amillo, 76, who has lived in Benidorm for many years, informed AFP.
“The earnings from overseas foreign money multiplied exponentially” as soon as bikinis had been allowed on seashores, he added.
Zaragoza proved adept at publicity stunts, inviting a household of the Sami folks from Finland’s Arctic area for a vacation that drew Nordic media protection.
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He additionally launched the Benidorm Music Competition, the place Grammy Award-winning Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias started his profession.
By the early Sixties, homosexual bars additionally appeared within the city, providing a refuge throughout Franco’s authoritarian rule.
A person takes within the view of Benidorm on September 10, 2025. (Picture by Jose Jordan / AFP)
‘Like New York’
Zaragoza’s mannequin of promoting sea and solar labored and was prolonged to different components of Spain, which acquired some 94 million overseas guests final yr, making it the world’s second most-visited nation behind France.
Some 2.8 million of these overseas vacationers headed to Benidorm, packing its seven kilometres (4 miles) of large, sandy seashores.
Criticised for many years for its high-rise skyline and dense crowds, lately it has been hailed as a mannequin of sustainable tourism.
READ ALSO: Six reasons why Benidorm is so much better than you think
Concentrated housing occupies much less land, minimises water loss, permits for faster waste assortment and reduces the necessity for vehicles, stated the deputy chief engineer at Benidorm’s metropolis council, Vicente Mayor.
“Though tall buildings and concrete density have been regarded down upon, vertical progress is a really environment friendly mannequin,” he added.
Guests stay loyal.
“It is obtained one thing for everyone. It is sensible. It is obtained the bars, the insanity down the strip. And it is obtained pretty tapas bars within the outdated city,” stated Stuart Reed who was visiting along with his spouse from Britain.
Others bristle at its repute.
“After I inform associates I will Benidorm, they are saying: ‘What a horrible metropolis!'” stated Maribel Soler, a 68-year-old Frenchwoman.
“However that is as a result of they do not know it. They’ve by no means been. They solely decide the buildings,” added Soler, who in contrast Benidorm to New York.
“And I like New York,” she stated.
Article by Alfons Luna
