Looks very quite doesn´t it!

Last Monday, the Sun newspaper and I use the term very loosely, printed an article entitled "Benidoom! Once a fave with the Brits, now it´s on it´s knees".

There was a terrible backlash, especially from people living and working here in Benidorm pointing out the inaccuracies in the piece and the wrong photographs which were used. It was portraying Benidorm as a virtual has been resort, with empty beaches, bars and abandoned shops, bars and restaurants. For those of us that live here or visit, we all know that its basically a pack of lies.... as I think I proved with my response to each point that the reporter, Graeme Culliford made. I also spent a morning talking to holiday makers in town to ask their opinions on the headline that has had Benidorm fuming since.

I also contacted the director of Tourism at the Town Hall and she too was furious at the article. She informed me that the Town Hall had spent a lot of effort, time and money trying to change peoples perceptions of the Town and one inaccurate article such as that could undo all the hard work. They sent out a press release to all UK papers and media in response.

The real Morgans Tavern.... packed as it is every night

I also spoke with many business owners and they were all united and in total agreement on how damaging and misleading the article was.... not one single person gave me a flattering response shall we say! In fact, some of the words used I had never even heard before....

The department of Transport at Benidorm Town Hall yesterday announced that in the first 5 days of August alone, 190,062 vehicles had entered the town - twelve thousand more than this time last year!

So despite all the backlash, thousands of emails and letters sent off to the paper and official complaint made  by Benidorm Town Hall, what do they do? Worse than nothing, which quite frankly is what we expected - they printed the article AGAIN in the Scottish edition of the Sun yesterday across pages 30 & 31 with NO amendments to the mistakes they originally made.

As one person put it "A dirty stinking rag"

It is absolutely shocking and the trouble is that people believe what is printed in the paper... they really do think that Benidorm is closing down and are put off from coming. It is causing untold commercial damage to the tourist market and I certainly hope that someone sues the paper... as one person said, "not for nothing are there are good few members and ex-members of staff at the Sun due in court". A Liverpudlian said that after the Hillsborough disaster and all the front page lies they printed most of town has boycotted the paper... and who can blame them. One statement that did make me laugh was "My dog won´t even sh*t on it ... filthy rag"! That just about sums it up I believe.

The "quiet" Poniente this morning at 11am

Once again TripAdvisor closed down the topic that was posted by a Scottish forum member criticizing the paper... remember Ive been barred by them for voicing my opinion last week! Im such a rebel....