He’s right though. No brits should visit there, spend any money in the bars or shops and certainly not buy property there. Then see what he has to say.

what a idiot well i hope that includes testing for f1 british teams sack him

Where does he think he is? Monaco?? Try putting heating in restaurants and toilets from this century rather than the 18th, and perhaps a more classy and refined visitor will come! Arrogant idiot.

get him to give up his car and other things the british have contributed to, and give him his donkey back, ive allready cancelled my trip to jerez and will be sending this tweet all around the uk.

Hmm…

1. We don’t want English tourists.
2. We don’t want English tourists who do nothing apart from drink all day long.

These are two entirely different statements.

This article needs more editing. Spain could do with ANY tourists, but I think Mr Bermudez is just trying to say that he does not want drunken yobs coming to Jerez, and I doubt anyone would disagree with that.

Jerez is for English Teetotalers!

Fred, so why doesn’t he simply say “we don’t want drunken yobs” instead of making a sweeping generalisation about his second biggest market for tourists?

For a tourism chief you would expect him to think for a second before opening his mouth.

Getting pissed is not the preserve of the English. You should see what happens at the average botellon in the average Andaluz town on a Friday/Saturday night. You would be shocked.

I think Mr Bermudes was perhaps ‘lost in translation’. If he really said “The English do nothing apart from drink all day long” then yes, it would be a sweeping statement, but I am not sure he ever said that. Did he say that, that’s the issue?

The headline of this article is friction-causing. It’s like saying “The Olive Press is poor” and then omitting the rest of the sentence “at contructing proper headlines”. One is sweeping; one is not.

Fred, here’s the original interview:

The paragraph following “¿Cómo se conseguirá?”

http://www.diariodejerez.es/article/jerez/620043/quotcrear/la/delegacion/ha/sido/acierto/y/el/sector/lo/agradecequot.html

I’d be interested to know if you still think the OP article and headline inaccurate…

This link translates via Google (i.e. not very good) as “Not like the English, to which the flight costs them practically nothing and are dedicated to drinking alcohol every weekend in places.”

I think what Mt Bermudes means is that he does not want English drinking tourists who _only_ come for cheap booze, and that has been lost in the translation. I doubt if he wanted to exclude a whole country, especially if he works for the tourist board. Perhaps the OP should contact him for clarification and then print what he means?

I think his inclusion of a specific country to be a mistake however, since it associates a drinking issue specifically with the English. If he was talking about Fuengirola, maybe lol.

Translate via Google! ROFL. Are you serious Fred? Do you even live in spain??
I bet you are one of those expats who rants against all “the bloody foreigners living in the UK that don’t speak english”.
Juan Manuel García Bermúdez says “No como LOS ingleses, a los que el vuelo no les cuesta prácticamente nada y se dedican a beber alcohol todo el fin de semana en algunos lugares.” The context is “I dont want THE English, those who come on cheap flights and spend the whole weekend drinking in some places”.
What he wants is tourists who arrive in spain with Iberia or BA. And its the English who have the cheap flight market, not the Scandinavians, Dutch, Germans or anyone else.

Calm down Ivan. Thanks for clarifying, since my original answer is now reinforced :) Mr Bermudes says exactly what I thought he said, namely he does not want English people (wait for it…) who spend the whole weekend drinking. The OPs statement “We don’t want English tourists” is not qualified by the rest of the sentence.

Btw, the proper acronym is ROTFL, not ROFL. Thanks Ivan.

Fred, if you read the article properly (the one Justin has sent over in Spanish) he clearly picks on the English… in the same way Zapatero now claims Spain’s economic problems are to do with the Anglo Saxon media! And nothing to do with his country’s lapse laws, overbuilding and environmental abuse!

Fred, i agree entirely with you (for once). Everyone here seems to be putting this all out of proportion, without getting all their facts toghether. Justin: please, let me know where all these botellonas are, i haven’t seen one in years, what with their being ilegal and being moved to outer mongolia where the kids don’t want to go. Jon, while i respect your journalistic knowledge nd “nose” for a good story (like your paper being the only REAL paper on the coast, very subtle), it’s a cheap-shot becoming one more of the Mob in spanish journalist circles and blaming “Zapatero” for everything. ‘Twas the PP whom decided that to become someone important you had to own property; if anything, there has been a reduction in construction during Zapatero’s government. And if you don’t like it, piss-off back to where you all came from and let us who actually LIKE living here get on with it: the less expats in “expat ghettos” the better!

Fred, if there are no comments on an article you will disagree with the article, if there is a comment already you will disagree with the comment. It’s obvious you are not a spanish speaker and that you have waaaay too much time on your hands.
Btw ROFL is correct too, but then you are very disagreeable.

everybody calm down,i took the actual full spanish version to our local library, and the olive press is right to the letter. the spanish lady who read it was in shock and showed it to members where she works, after all as she explained jerez has countless sherry outlets which are famous all over the world, and the british are the no1 buyers, im actually italian. mr bermudez perhaps should have chosen his words a bit more carefully as in these times when things are bad all the cafes and bars need the trade, it doesnt matter what nationality the clients are, just look how many golf courses are empty, spain has many problems and will be the last out of reccession ,with 20,000 unsold homes in malaga all due to the corruption, with foreign buyers frightend to purchase them,i hope this clears up some points ,another fact is the olive press is a good paper, we were about to pay a very large deposit to a firm, which if not for a story the olive press printed we would have lost us our home,thanks to all

Unless Mr Bermudes clarifies, none of us are going to know definitively what he meant. As I said at the beginning of the thread, he should not have mentioned any nationality because it is just accusation by insinuation. His comments can be read in lots of different ways, as this thread proves.

Anyway, it’s no surprise to me. The Spanish people are secretly overjoyed that so many expats are leaving the country. Do you really think they like expats? I do so laugh when people say they are “integrating” in Spain.

Er Guiri, keep an eye out for them, that’s the botellones (not botellonas), especially as the rain stops and it warms up a bit. They are very much alive and happening and not always at the “official” botellodromos.

I was following this story and only a few days ago Mr Bermúdez was on Spanish national radio talking about all the information they had from last years tourists. Of the 200,000 tourists that passed through the tourism offices in Jerez and left details, get this 150,000 said the main reason for their visit was for the Bodegas or sherry.

Lets talk the truth, you need to be wasted to handle the arrogant service and sitting on plastic chairs – Spain went down hill and this big time. Lived there for 10 years!

you all myther… and the Russians are now colonising rustic Andalucia… wait and see…

Justin R, you seem to have taken me for someone who has just got off the ‘plane, so let me enlighten you somewhat: “botellones” is misspelled, as this means rather large bottles (plural). “Botellona” or “botellon” to be precise, is a get toghether of young spanish people in a public area, maybe the street in front of your house, or a plaza, to drink strong spirit, usually dark rum or vodka, maybe a litre of cruzcampo (or if they’re clever, San Miguel cos of the screwtop), from plastic tubo cups, and then once sufficiently plastered will go off and gatecrash a club/disco somewhere and not feel the need to pay extortionate prices for MORE drinks. By doing this, many find no need to get drugged up to the eyeballs in the lavatories of said clubs to have a good time, as they have drunk more than enough earlier in the evening. Look, you’re talking to a guy who studied at Malaga University: we could get 3500 kids in the Plaza de la Merced in Malaga on a Saturday night!! Don’t talk to me as if you have any idea what a botellona is (or was) because the little piss-ups now are NOTHING compared to what they once were: the last great form of rebellion against the System (and adults)

“Botellón is also used to refer to a drinking pack consisting of an alcoholic drink bottle, soft drink and ice. It is also known as botelleo, botellona, or botelloneo.” From Wikipedia. So you are both right on this one at least!

Thanks Sarita and just to clarify Er Guiri: I know what a botellon is and I was talking about them in the plural as in un botellon, muchos botellones… Forgive me but “botellona” is not used much where I live and people tend to refer to it as “botellon”.

@IVAN: Don’t base your argument around the fact that in Spanish he says ‘LOS ingleses’. That’s just correct Spanish grammar. In Spanish you always use the definite article when referring to a group of people. EG. ‘Los jovenes hoy en día les gusta mucho bailar’. Even though literally translated it would says “THE young people today like to dance”, it refers to young people in general.
@ER_GUIRI: ‘Saturday nights at the Plaza de la Merced’. That brings back some good memories. As for the “botellones”, every Saturday night there’s a botellón en Coín at the Mirador on the road out to Las Delicias and Marbella-Cártama. It’s not far away from the Guardia Civil either! Not my scene though… not very good with alcohol :)
Any type of sweeping statement is wrong. I agree with Juan Manuel in that he doesn’t want drunken yobs vandalising his city (England seems to be a world leader in providing those) but he should have said that and not tarred us all with the same brush. Before anybody takes offense at my comments, I am both Spanish and English nationality so I’m looking at this from both cultural viewpoints.
Finally, the fact that this article has provoked such a funny heated debate just goes to show the quality of the “Olive Press”!

I think the Irish, Scots and Welsh will feel realy left out, they can get pissed just as well as any English man.
A stupid racist comment from a stupid man. There seems to be no shortage of the type in any nation. Is Juan Manuel in the right occupation? He obviously dislikes the English. Well understandable, we would be perfect if we were just a bit more humble – so I guess it does get up the nose of those that look up to the dizzy hieghts of civalization that we have achieved.
I say Viva La Spañia – what a marvelous song says it all.

The Germans drink as much as the English.
So tear down Novo Sancti Petri.
And Juan Manual, please inform all the Spaniards to stay away from the Oktoberfest.

I have just come across this article. I would love to say I am shocked at Bermudes’ comments however I have found this a typical view of English tourists. I am a final year student of Spanish and I lived and worked in Jerez last year as an English teacher. I had the time of my life in a small town and made lots of friends, and I return to Jerez often, but unfortunately there are Spanish people who still bare the same opinion of the English, even other teachers who I worked with! Bermudes has generalised the English people despite the fact that young people like me have worked in their schools to help their children with their education. Bermudes portrays a very closed minded view without thought or reason! Jerez is a small place, and despite living on the main street and spending most of my evenings with friends eating and going to bars I rarely came across overtly drunken English people!! I think he needs to spend more time in his community to make such generalistaions.

Generalisations are the vocal garbage of some people when they are to lazy to think or many people when they are to tired to work it out.

An english taxi driver told us that of all the years he had lived in spain, he had came across only one incidnt of a foul mouth, agressive drunk edging for a fight wait for it, it was him. At least he was honest!

Exactly. What is your point?

According to a massive survey by the EU (how they love to waste money much better they spent it on drink) We English are not the biggest bunch of binge drinkers. In 1st place, The Irish, followed by the Romanians, Germans and in 4th place Austrians.

http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2010/04/21/who-are-europes-biggest-binge-drinkers/

So get down the local bar and get it down your neck and get our rightful place back! – mines a large G&T

Just my point Kim!