Alex Trelinski
BENIDORM’S struggling shops and hospitality businesses have demanded €72 million in aid over six months from the Valencian government.
Pandemic restrictions have seen the normally-bustling Costa Blanca resort become close to a ghost town.
The Aico, Abreca and Cobreca associations met with Valencia’s director of tourism, Herick Campos last Friday(December 11)
They called for financial help worth €12 million per month, backdated to an October start.
They also announced a protest in Valencia City outside the Valencian parliament building this Thursday(December 17) to ‘demand immediate and essential aid’.
A joint statement said that the money was needed to ‘mitigate the effects of the coronavirus in their sector’.
The groups presented a ‘Save Benidorm’ plan which included ideas on stimulating tourism.
They added that the financial package was needed to ‘to stop bankruptcies, permanent closures and job losses, which is all happening on a daily basis in Benidorm’.
Despite Thursday’s planned protests,, the groups will have more talks with Campos tomorrow(December 15).
Herick Campos said:- “I will ask the Madrid government to come up with help similar to what has been implemented for the Canary and Balearic Islands.”
Over Valencian support, he said that he ‘anticipated that the regional government will offer direct aid to all hotels and restaurants that meet certain criteria and get involved in future strategies like developing gastronomic tourism.”
Campos did not expand on what type of ‘criteria’ he was referring to.
