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Your English Newspaper
05 APR - 12 apr 2012
iSSUE 651
‘All in’ deals hit resort tills
by jack troughton
Eggs at Easter Youngsters in Xabia International College’s foundation stage cannot wait for Easter. After making giant eggs and bunny ears in class at the Javea school, all that remains is a visit from the Easter Bunny and tucking into some tasty chocolate.
THE GROWTH of all inclusive holidays is “killing” the much loved businesses in the Costa Blanca’s largest resort, say bar and restaurant owners. As a new season gets underway, the ‘all in’ deals being offered by tour companies are contributing to the crisis in Benidorm and its neighbouring coastal towns. Continued gloom is forecast across the entertainment trade with bars closing “every day” according to businessmen and women threatening “ghost towns”. And RTN was told businesses already feeling the pinch through the recession and the fall in the value of sterling, felt “mugged” and claimed the all inclusive deal was not the value it first appeared - alleging the quality of food and drink suffered. At the Cumberland Bar in Benidorm, Nigel said there were now 15 hotels dedicated to all inclusive holidays while five years ago there were just five, a tribute to clever marketing. “It is killing the town,” he said. “Pubs and clubs are just not taking any money; we are suffering because nearly everyone has gone all inclusive.” “On average it is about £50 a person more to stay all inclusive rather than self-catering. Given the option as a punter, which would you choose?” He said in earlier years guests still used to come out on the town to see Benidorm’s huge range of entertainers on stage in bars. “But now a lot of hotels are offering the acts that used to work in bars. Three or four years ago in the hotels it was flamenco and traditional Spanish shows. “If Benidorm becomes a ghost town people will not want to come to a place where there is nothing going on. We have the chance to survive but you cannot stay open if you are not taking any money.” Continued on page 5