There is no decrease in the number of people wanting to see the Roman Colosseum
The thirty-second TV commercial 'Magic of Italy' will be broadcast on the Apennine peninsula for several weeks. 'A unique country where there is not only sun and sea, but also history, culture, art... This is an amazing country that you have yet to discover for yourself' – that is how Prime Minister Berlusconi very emotionally tells Italians about their homeland in the ad.
How citizens responded to the head of government's calls is not yet known, but residents of Spain, where the economic situation is significantly worse than in Italy, have generally never shunned their own resorts. This year, domestic tourism is developing especially rapidly.
A typical example is the Mediterranean coast strip of Costa Blanca, where over 2 million people vacation annually. Until recently, the British particularly loved to 'let loose' there, making up at least 40% of all vacationers. However, last year due to the crisis, the number of guests from Foggy Albion decreased by 250,000, that is, roughly a third. As a result, the region's tourism industry lost nearly 700 million euros. In May of this year, local hotels reported an increase in the number of guests, half of whom were already Spaniards themselves.
In the first three months of this year, the number of domestic tourists in Barcelona increased by 12%. Other resort cities are not lagging behind in this respect. 'We must treat the crisis as an opportunity to improve matters,' Federico Mille, a well-known restaurateur from Valencia, told journalists the other day. 'The difficulties faced by people who usually vacation abroad mean they will be more willing to stay in the country.'
No one argues that the Spanish tourism industry has suffered greatly from the recession, but the blow to it was still much weaker than, for example, to the construction industry or the banking sector. The decline in revenues in 2009 compared to 2008 was only 10%. However, according to the Spanish Ministry of Tourism, in May of this year, with the start of the season, they began to grow, although not very strongly – by 1.1%. Tourist spending, by the way, grew even more in the same month – by 4%.
Sergey MANUKOV.
Novye Izvestia