Hitting the right notes High figures Nerve

THE tourist season is well and truly underway in Mojacar.

Easter Week generat ‐ed very high occupation figures with 100 per cent full capacity over the Easter Weekend.

Global occupancy fig ‐ures have surpassed the best year recorded pre ‐pandemic in 2019.

Over Easter, Mojacar Municipal Tourist Office dealt with 1,951 en ‐quiries in person at its offices in the village and on the beach, to which must be added hun ‐dreds of phone calls and other indirect enquiries via social media, Google etc.

According to the records kept by the Mo ‐jacar Council Tourism Department the Easter visitors were mainly na ‐tional, those with the greatest volume being visitors from Madrid at 23 per cent, Valencia at 14 per cent, Andalucia at 7.5 per cent and Cat ‐alonia at 7.3 per cent.

The British market produced figures of 5.5 per cent.

Visitors to Mojacar were able to enjoy not only the beautiful and meaningful processions in an incomparable set ‐ting but also the fantas ‐tic beaches, where a rescue and lifeguard ser ‐vice was provided from April 1 until April 9.

EXCITEMENT is building in Almeria’s music scene thanks to a new collabora‐tive agreement between the council and ‘Crash Music’, a festival organiser and pro‐ducing company. The agree‐ment, announced on Mon‐day, April 17 will promote Almeria as a destination through the Cooltural Fest music festival.

The festival, one of the most important music events in the country, will be used as a platform to showcase the city as a top tourist destination.

‘Crash Music’ announced a new advertising campaign with the slogan ‘En Almeria la vida te sonríe’ (In Almeria, life smiles at you) which will be available in various forms including billboards, the offi‐cial website, social media, press releases, and posters, as well as on the main stage cover banners.

Additionally, promotional videos provided by the Almería Turística Municipal Company (EMAT) will be shown on the festival’s giant screens during artist changeovers, which are ex‐pected to reach an estimat‐ed audience of 15,000 peo‐ple.

The four‐day music event, which starts on August 17, will take place at different locations across the city, in‐cluding the fairground, the beach, and the city centre. Over 75 artists have been confirmed to perform.

League winners Costa de Almeria

THE woman’s handball team, Costa de Almeria Roquetas, finished first in their group (group D) of the Silver Division of Honour. They finished the league one point above second place BM. Sanse and two points above third place Ikasa Madrid. They will now go on to the playoffs to be promoted to the Gold Divi‐sion of Honour. After the match coach Agustín Collado praised the team “we got a great prize for the whole season which makes dream‐ing of promotion still possi‐ble. Undoubtedly the objec‐tive has been achieved, we

Proverb Of The Week

only have to continue to grow and enjoy the opportu‐nity.”

Costa de Almeria Roque‐tas will face the second‐place team from group B Anaita‐suna of Pamplona in the first leg of the playoffs on Satur‐day, April 22 followed by the second leg on April 29.

FROM April 21 to 23

Huercal‐Overa will be‐come the nerve centre of gastronomy and tourism with the celebration of the Degustho Gastro‐nomic Festival and Cara‐vaning.

The two events are ex‐pected to attract numer‐ous visitors from the mu‐nicipality as well as from the region and province, with a wide‐ranging pro‐gramme.

The councillor for Tourism, Belen Martinez, confirmed: “During these three days hundreds of people from different parts of our country will come together, actively participating in the pro‐gramme.”

The main attractions of the programme in‐clude show cooking as well as chocolate work‐shops for children, an Asian cuisine workshop, a cocktail workshop, a gastro stand, exhibitors, food trucks, wines, chil‐dren's entertainment, concerts and DJs.

In addition, attendees can win a weekend in a motorhome.

IN great tourism news, Easter Week in Almeria reached occu‐pancy peaks of 90 per cent and visits to the Tourist Office in‐creased by more than 31 per cent.

From an economic point of view, hotel occupancy aver‐aged 85 per cent, with peaks of 90 percent throughout the week, according to data collect‐ed by the Association of Hote‐liers of Almeria, (ASHAL).

In addition to the proces‐sions, bars and restaurants have been full, with the conse‐quent satisfaction of the hote‐liers, which will mean an in‐crease in turnover of 5 per cent compared to last year.

In the case of commerce, the Almeria Centro Association af‐

TWO chefs from Almeria, Francisco Ramón Gómez Guerrero and Juan José Grande Berenguer, are in the final of the ‘Cordon Bleu Promis‐es Award’. Both chefs are students from the CPIFP Almeraya School of Hostelry and they will compete against eight other finalists