Key figures - British Consul, Mayor and Tourism Councillor

The Tourism department in Benidorm will certainly have their work cut of for them next year as the budget has just been announced. Of the 100,000 euro budget, only 0.016% has been allocated to the Tourism Foundation, which is responsible for promoting the town to attract new tourists.

David Devesa, leader of the opposition PP party in Benidorm was quick to criticise and said that "This is a test of the low priority given to tourism by our Goverment. When Gema Amor was in opposition, she requested that the entire budget was allocated to the Foundation, yet now she is the Tourism Councillor it has not been fullfilled"

With budget cuts across every area and huge debts to manage, each department will have to think very carefully exactly where and how to spend their allocation of money. Every department feels that theirs should be a priority and in an ideal world they would all have limitless funds. But this is the real world, one which economically has changed greatly in the last few years and massive changes have had to be implemented. You just need to walk through the town and you can see many projects that have been started but yet to be completed... the Cultural Centre on Avd Europa is a prime example.

Derren in middle at Fridays private Town Hall meeting

Friday´s plaque presentation to Derren Litten, writter and creator of the ITV hit comedy series was a huge success and the Mayor understands the importance to the Towns tourism sector. He was delighted to learn a 6th series will be filmed, beginning in the Spring and the ceremony was a public way to show his appreciation.

One way in which the Tourism Foundation hopes to build on that success is to use some of the popular cast members to promote Benidorm at future Tourism exhibitions as a holiday destination. You may yet see posters with Mateo aka actor Jake Canuso in various advertising campaigns for next year! This is one of many ideas which the department has to promote the Town and with the popularity of the series certainly a good one, especially for the British market.

Power of the Benidorm series - crowd puller every time

It is proven that every time a repeat of the series is broadcast on the television, booking for the resort go up. In the last year you could see a repeat virtually every week on one of the hundreds of television channels... in fact I understand that there was only one week out of the entire year that you couldn´t catch one. The power that a television series can have is incredible ... and everyone connected to the tourism sector here in Benidorm is relieved that the making of a 6th series has now been confirmed! Not only hoteliers, bar and restaurant owners but also all those involved on the production side and obviously the casting agency responsible for the extras!

All the local ex-pats that live in and around Benidorm will be eagerly awaiting the dates for auditions - in fact over the last two series there has been a marked increase in Spanish residents also applying... mind you most have no idea what the show is about or who any of the cast are. For them its just a days wages to help pay the bills, which with the recent IVA increases possibly means even more will apply.
As soon as I have some information I will let you in on the secret so you can be ready and prepared... I have a hotline to the production company!