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OLIVE PRESS
Your dream property on the beach
Welcome to the Tropics THE Costa Blanca is now suffering a ‘tropical climate’ which is increasing the frequency of giant storms along the coast, according to scientists at Alicante university. Shocking increases in air and sea temperatures over the last 40 years are causing maritime storms roughly every two years. Some 85 nights this year have stayed at over 22°C with the sea even staying at 24°C in November. This is in contrast to around 30 similar nights just 40 years ago in 1980. As the critical COP 26 conference got underway in Glasgow, Jorge Olcina, director at Alicante University, insisted the tropical nights are clear evidence of climate change. “The temperature of the sea at 23/24 degrees in November should really worry us,” he said. “Climate change is going to cause great maritime storms every two or two-and-a-half years, when 20 years ago they were much less frequent,” added Olcina. “They will also be more intense, and not only with torrential rains, but also in the greater virulence of the sea beating against the coast,” he claimed. Figures from the university’s Climatology Lab show that tropical temperatures (categorised at 22°C or more) continued on 71 nights between June 1 and August 18, with five classed as equatorial (25°C or more). Anyone that had trouble sleeping this summer, will remember the linked high levels of humidity. The lab study also revealed that the temperature rises are occurring faster on the Costa Blanca than in inland regions such as the Guadalquivir valley, in Andalucia, considered the most parched area in Spain. Since 1980, average sea water temperature has increased by 1.3 degrees, which, Olcina says, ‘requires taking difficult but necessary measures’.
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Storms
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VALENCIA has trumped 30 European cities to become Europe’s capital for Smart Tourism next year. An EU jury picked the city, alongside Bordeaux, for its mix of environmental and technical planning, which is also sustainable. European funds will now help to promote the city’s status as a Mecca for ‘smart tourism’ with a big publicity campaign. The investment will also include the erection of a large sculpture (complete with a hashtag) in a prominent place in the city. The jury selected Valencia due to its ‘accessibility, sustainability, digitization, cultural heritage and creativity’. Tourism chiefs at Visit Valencia point to the city’s success in developing projects that promote innovative and sustainable tourism.
Smart moves A total of 30 cities applied for the award from across 16 countries and included Copenhagen, Dublin and Palma, in Mallorca. The French city of Bordeaux will share the honour in 2022. Emiliano García, Councilor for Tourism on Valencia’s City Council, said that the honour is ‘recognition of the work on sustainability being developed alongside the business sector’ “Valencia is positioning itself as a cosmopolitan, intelligent and sustainable tourist destination, at the level of the large tourist cities and European capitals,” he said. In particular, the city’s tourism strategy has
been set up around the issue of sustainability. The city has developed projects which audit tourists' carbon footprint, making efforts to reduce it, and hopes to achieve carbon neutrality in the tourism sector by 2025.
SCRAP THE RULE
Valencia calls for the restrictive 90-day Brexit punishment for UK visitors to be relaxed THE harsh 90-day rule for British visitors should be eased, insists a leading Spanish politician. Valencian president Ximo Puig has called on the Spanish government to relax length-of-stay rules introduced since Brexit.
Depart
Speaking in London, he called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to ‘correct the restrictions’ and to relax the rules that mean that
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CALL: Ximo Puig in London
By Alex Trelinski
even British homeowners in Spain must depart after three months. His calls were echoed by Spain’s ambassador to the UK, Jose Pascual Marco and Alicante tourist boss Carlos Mazon. “British visitors are fundamental to us and we are working on trying to get a reciprocal deal so that they can spend six uninterrupted
months with us,” insisted Mazon at a joint meeting at the World Travel Market. The trio slammed the current 90-day rule, which can only be extended by visitors or tourists by applying for a visa to stay longer. They pleaded with central government to help ‘facilitate the visa situation’ and to ‘correct the restrictions’ caused by Brexit. Puig added that at least 100,000 British, who are either future home buyers or have relatives living in the Valencian Community, are affected. The calls came as regional bosses announced a €1.5 million plan to attract more UK tourists to the Valencian region.
The money will be mainly spent on advertising to restore previously high British visitor numbers. Puig described it as ‘a priority’ with three million British tourists accounting for 30% of all the visitors to Valencia in 2019. Last year, pandemic and Brexit restrictions meant that under 600,000 UK tourists visited.
Zero
At the same meeting, meanwhile, Balearic tourist chiefs insisted they were calling time on cheap low cost booze tourism. President Francina Armengol insisted future holiday excesses will ‘not be tolerated’. There will be a zero tolerance approach towards those who misbehave on holidays, in particular to the resorts of Magaluf and San Antonio.