My nearest tourist resort is Torre del Mar, 5km away. It's main tourist market is domestic, with a great many apartments being owned by Spanish families who come down for the summer holidays and rent them out for the winter months. A lot of restaurants don't open for lunch in July or August, apart from Saturdays and Sundays, because the visitors are mainly on the beach and either take their own food there or go back to their apartments for a late lunch. That hasn't changed in recent years, it's always been that way. At night it's a different story, with long queues for tables outside restaurants at 10 or 11 pm. Outside the summer months the resort is quiet, but it doesn't turn into a ghost town with most restaurants and bars closed for the winter, I often wonder how they manage to survive but they do. Even some of the chiringuitos stay open all year round, they get custom from the Northern Europeans who come for long stay winter holidays.

 

Not only in Mallorca. For several years restaurant & bar owners in my town have talked about the drop in custom during the high tourist season.

Not so many years ago it was impossible to get a table in most restaurants without a reservation, & some in the main tourist area encouraged queues. Now you can just walk in, even in high season.

And yes, supermarkets are busy & picnics on the beach are de moda.

 

Happens all over Spain, come winter in Benidorm there are thousands of Northern Spanish tourists (most of them are elderly and come for a month or so).
Most of the 'tourist bars' close around 8pm but all the cafe's etc in the old town and the little alleyways are busy all evening and into the early morning.
We like La Villajoyoca and there are large numbers of Spanish families there who take a table, chairs and multiple boxes of food and drink to the beach while all the resturants along the front are quiet.
My cousin lives along the Mar Menor and in August its heaving with the second home Spanish, none of them go near the bars during the day, they all camp out on the sea front or the boardwalk entertaining family and friends. We were surprised just how easy it was to find somewhere to eat during the day.

But why should anyone be surprised, we used to do the exact same thing when we lived in the Uk and the only time we went to a bar or cafe, was when the kids were getting annoying by asking every two minutes where the ice cream I promised them an hour ago was.

I bet if you looked closely enough every country does the exact same thing, its only the two week tourist who doesnt.

 

It is a story in the "Daily Express" so it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt frankly

 

Who would have thought after anti tourist protests in the streets and tourists being sprayed by water pistols that visitor numbers would drop? And who would think that all inclusive deals in hotels would mean visitors don't eat in restaurants? The Spanish tourists ( in our area) are well known for being self sufficient and not using expensive restaurants frequently so I wonder if the Spanish tourist business has taken a hit from the recent publicity against foreign tourists?

 

A quick search on mainstream Spanish news sites doesn't seem to reflect any real worry from the tourist sector... quite the contrary in fact.

This is just something some areas of the British press would love to be true.

 

A quick search on mainstream Spanish news sites doesn't seem to reflect any real worry from the tourist sector... quite the contrary in fact.

This is just something some areas of the British press would love to be true.

It has certainly been reported for the past few years in our local Spanish press.

 

Reality is that many restaurants close each year or change owners. Even if they look very busy, it still doesn't mean they are making huge profits. It's probably the same across Europe, that's what I've heard here or from people in France.

Fast food industry is booming and younger generation have different demands.

 

Hospitality businesses don't always close down because they're not making money. The two busiest bars in my town have closed down within the last 18 months because their leases expired. One of them is actually part of the ground floor of our Ayuntamiento, and it was reported in the press that they had invited tenders to run the bar, with an initial upfront payment of €70k required, the business owners to be responsible for the renovations required, and a hefty monthly rent thereafter. It's been closed for 18 months, the Alcalde was photographed about a month ago shaking hands with the people who've signed up to take it over. When the previous tenants were running it, it always closed by 10pm and in August closed at 2pm each day and didn't reopen. Always closed on Sundays. There must be some money in it. Another restaurant we liked to go to in Málaga capital closed because the building it was in was to be redeveloped.

 

This is really rubbish from a very questionable newspaper.
Aumento del 39% en reservas hoteleras y alza del 10% en precios en Santiago de Compostela durante el puente
To quote further down "En el contexto nacional, las reservas de hoteles para julio y agosto se han incrementado un 1,86%"
El turismo en España modera su crecimiento tras el boom pospandemia
El turismo se dispara este verano

 

This is really rubbish from a very questionable newspaper.
Aumento del 39% en reservas hoteleras y alza del 10% en precios en Santiago de Compostela durante el puente
To quote further down "En el contexto nacional, las reservas de hoteles para julio y agosto se han incrementado un 1,86%"
El turismo en España modera su crecimiento tras el boom pospandemia
El turismo se dispara este verano

We're not saying that there aren't as many if not more tourists coming - simply that they are spending in a different way - eating in a more self-catering way than eating out in restaurants every day.

 

I always wonder how the ice cream parlours make enough money to survive. There are two in our town centre, branches of the same family business (they have another branch in Torre del Mar). All of them open just after Semana Santa each year and close at the end of September, they don't open until 2pm and don't stay open until the early hours. So the business only operates for 6 months of the year at most, they employ staff so it's not just family members running them. They must have to pay rent on the premises all year round, and it won't be cheap because they're all on main thoroughfares. But survive they do, the same firm has been running them for many years and the premises have been modernised and kitted out with new furniture. On the way back from seeing my cardiologist earlier, I passed the best pasteleria/café in Torre del Mar - notice in the window saying we are closed for holidays for 1 month from mid July to mid August. They do it every year. A business which can afford to shut down for a month in peak tourist season can't be doing too badly, and they don't open all the hours God sends either.

 

Of course there will be businesses doing well but again that's not a sign people are always doing well. It's the same with some Chinese restaurants and you can have owner and employees sharing a room above premises.
Even employees have kids and holidays so might have to take that month off. At the same time it's sometimes cheaper to close down off season to save on energy bills. I remember meeting a guy outside Lloret who owns a café and said he shuts down end of September but continues to work for another business in Barcelona as an employee in winter.

 

More from the Mirror....

"Holiday hotspot turns to 'ghost town' as tourists declare it's 'dead'"

Holiday hotspot turns to 'ghost town' as tourists declare it's 'dead' - The Mirror

 

I have yet to visit Spain but if it's anything like Italy maybe many tourists have discovered you can eat just as tasty by buying supermarket food? I bet many locals indeed do that already. I did it in Athens and Thessaloniki but to be fair supermarket food in Greece wasn't that good. Same is true for every other country I've visited but so far Greece and Italy are the only Med countries I've been to. I can say Italian supermarket food was amazing. In other countries I've been to I usually found the food better in restaurants.

I can vouch for the packaged insalate in the Italian branch of Carerefour. Just as tasty as any salad you'll get at a restaurant. The cheese was from an original local brand, the olives and everything else was really fresh and tasty. The balsamic vinegar and sea salt included were likewise amazing:

I had the tastiest tomatoes ever in Italy, bought from the supermarket as well.
Probably Spanish supermarket food is likewise as good and tasty?
Supermarket food in Bulgaria isn't as good so I feel like going to Italy with an empty suitcase just to shop at the supermarkets.
With even hostels where you have to share a common WC (!) becoming way more expensive after Covid maybe many tourists decided they can skip the restaurants?

 

I wouldn't get your hopes up too high about Spanish supermarket food, sad to say.

 

I said it above you can only spend money once.
Con los gastos y los sueldos que tenemos, es impensable viajar - El País
If tourism, in general, has increased then who are they and where do they stay?
El crecimiento en junio de las llegadas de China y Corea del Sur - Hosteltur

 

I said it above you can only spend money once.
Con los gastos y los sueldos que tenemos, es impensable viajar - El País
If tourism, in general, has increased then who are they and where do they stay?
El crecimiento en junio de las llegadas de China y Corea del Sur - Hosteltur

I was looking at a long weekend in northern Spain. One of the places was €3853 for a basic room for 4 nights.
last year I looked at going to Valencia in November, as we had in November 23. Same hotel, same dates, the price had increased 80%.

With prices like that who can afford to eat out as well?

 

Agree, prices for accommodation have shot up everywhere. The thing is that with more and more long distance air travel, hotels also try their luck with different nationalities who are willing to pay more.


In Ireland we have an issue that a lot of hotels are now closed to the public and they are housing Ukrainians or homeless. The few hotels that are left have less competition and just charge what they like. Many Europeans can't afford it but a person from the US might be willing to pay these prices for a once in a lifetime trip.

At the same time we see more and more campervans so people from Germany France, Spain set up along the beach and as mentioned go to supermarkets avoiding restaurants.

 

We were in Italy maybe 10 years back, at Lake Garda.
The restaurant prices were really high, it took me by surprise just how high! And with 2 meals a day needed out, it quickly stacked up.
Then I discovered shop with take away pizza and another with grilled chickens to take away in the back streets, we had picknick from then on and only eat evening meal out. My other half was not keen at first as he said it felt "cheap", but I showed him how much is on card so far and he relented🤣
The only reason we did not return completely broke from that holiday!

 

I do have certain things I adore at M&S:4 cheese ravioli-cannot miss out on that one! Always always buy, even if for the freezer. And lasagne and also southern fried chicken. Closest to "healthier" KFC you can get I think (I do mine in airfryer with no oil added).
But without question a lot of it is also bland - curry-had not seen indian spices even in passing (but then we up North have so many choices for Indian cuisine we are spoiled I suspect), or chinese. Many pasta dishes are really lacking and charcutterie board items are nice but so expensive you need second mortgage! We are back to value for many, for some items I am unwilling to pay M&S prices.
And we tried a lot-only shop my mother in law shops at.
But I suspect thats like that with every shop, and different ppl have different tastes.

 

there are many shops in Valencia center and other bigger towns that sell daily made lunches only for takeaway. Chicken and rice, paella, etc...
Prices range from 4 to 6 euros. depends on how "center" to the city center you are...