All records smashed

TOURIST information offices in Velez­Malaga smashed all records kept since they opened in 2022 with a staggering 40,000 visits made to the town’s two tourist information offices and more than 90,000 visitor enquiries answered.

Velez­Malaga’s councillor for Tourism, Jesús Atencia

Pérez announced the staggering statistics on Tuesday, February 8, saying they are evidence that the town’s ‘smart tourism’ policy is bringing visitors to the town.

The statistics are an encouraging start to 2023 for the town’s Department for Tourism, particularly considering that all travel restrictions were not yet lifted at the start of last year. The

Tropical chef contest

figures are also an improvement on data collected before the pandemic, signalling a start of a tourism boom for the town.

Pérez highlighted the improvement in figures since his team came into office, a 40 per cent increase in visitor interaction since 2015.

A tourism camera set up on the beachfront also saw an average of 500 views per day with a total of 167,000 views recorded during 2022.

ALMUÑECAR is warming up to host a thrilling cookery contest in March, to find the best ‘Tropical Chef’. This year’s contest will be held at the Playa Victoria Hotel in the town and will focus on the papaya as a central ingredient, aiming to find a chef skilled with tropical flavours. After being postponed for several years due to the pandemic, the com ­ petition is back to its vibrant self from Tuesday, March 14 for the semifinal, before the final one week later.

Competitors will be tasked with preparing two dishes featuring the distinctive tropical fruit, one savoury and one sweet. Participants will have 15 minutes to prepare and five minutes to assemble their dish for a chance to win a huge cash prize.