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roundtownnews.com
14-20 June 2013
Issue 713
AVE could bring a million extra tourists by Keith Nicol
A typical day at the beach in Torrevieja
Summer starts on Saturday
This week the mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolon, along with Councillor for Beaches, Francisco Moreno, and the president of Local Red Cross, Bibiano Vera, announced that from tomorrow the Lifesaving Service and Surveillance will be in place on all of Torrevieja’s beaches. Read the full story on page 5.
THE NEW AVE high-speed train could attract more than a million tourists a year to the Costa Blanca, as average journey times drop below the two and a half hour mark between Madrid and Alicante. The line officially opens next Tuesday, June 18th 2013, with the inaugural two days almost completely sold out within 24 hours, as tourists flock to the region for the Bonfires of Sant Joan. At the time of writing there were only a few seats available in Preferred, with virtually everything sold out for next Friday and Saturday. The launch of the new high-speed line between Alicante and Madrid will involve the generation of two hundred direct jobs. Renfe has already sold about 25,000 tickets to passengers who have taken up the introductory offer allowing them to travel between the two cities for less than seventy euros, roundtrip. The Ministry of Development predicts that the opening of the high-speed line between Alicante and Madrid will double the passenger capacity to the Mediterranean region, which will have a direct benefit to the province of nearly a million new visitors, to be built up over the next couple of years. Renfe’s calculations, as given to the president of the council, Luisa Pastor, is that 50% of passengers who travel on the AVE between Alicante and Ma-
drid will target the capital of the province, but the rest will travel to different tourist towns on the Costa Blanca. Nearly 80,000 Madrid residents have their second homes in the province. These are located mainly in Torrevieja, Benidorm, Santa Pola, Guardamar, El Campello, Elche and Sant Joan. Specifically, according to figures from the council, Torrevieja is the town that has attracted the most second home buyers in recent years, featuring 24,398 homes, followed by Benidorm, with 8,494 dwellings; Guardamar (7,833), Santa Pola (6,538), El Campello (3,643) Elche (2,079) and Sant Joan (392).In total, Suma overseas a total of 107,378 receipts in the province of individuals with tax residence in Madrid. Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, will oversee the opening ceremony of the new AVE service between Madrid and Alicante, on Monday June 17th, which will be available to the general public from the following day. Government sources have confirmed Rajoy’s presence at this inaugural event, which was announced last Thursday by the Minister of Development, Ana Pastor. She will be present for the inauguration too, while the president of Valencia, Alberto Fabra, the Mayor of Alicante, Sonia Castedo, as well as a member of the Royal Family, expected to be Crown Prince Felipe, are also all expected to attend.