The Brits are Still Coming – On Mass Falling exchange rates and Brexit fears do not seem to be bothering UK tourists coming to the Costa Blanca, according to latest figures from the National Statistics Institute. On the back of a record 2016 for foreign tourism, the January returns show a massive 32 percent hike in the number of British visitors coming to Read More
Slight Rise in Short and Long-Distance Train Ticket Prices High-speed AVE train ticket costs for services between Alicante, Villena, and Madrid, and those across the country, plus those for general long-distance journeys have gone up by one percent, in the first rise in five years. Rail company RENFE says that only the basic price of these two types of train journey will be affected, Read More
C&A Announce Closing of 23 Stores in Spain Budget clothing chain C&A has announced plans to close down 23 ‘loss-making’ branches across the country, which will involve 16 percent of its staff being made redundant, but the bad news is not going affect outlets in the southern Costa Blanca and Murcia regions. The Dutch firm, which has been operating in Europe for 175 Read More
Tourist Toppers Spain has smashed the record for visits from foreign tourists last year, with a total of 71 and a half million visitors, and that’s before figures for December are factored in early next month! In November alone, four point one million foreign visitors arrived in Spain, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Up Read More
Almost 100 Migrants Rescued on Spanish Coastlines Last Saturday Authorities say that 92 migrants travelling in five makeshift boats were rescued off Spain’s coast on Saturday, with nine Algerians being picked up in a boat off the coast of Torrevieja (pictured). Officials said that amongst those rescued were were 63 people from sub-Saharan Africa and 29 Algerians. The migrants also landed at Cabo de Read More
Nine Immigrants Rescued and Brought to Torrevieja A maritime coastguard boat has rescued nine people from a boat off the coast of the Alicante province on Saturday morning, transferring them to Torrevieja to be dealt with. Those rescued are said to have originated in Ghana and were heading to Spain to start a new life. The Salvamento Maritimo crew delivered the rescued Read More
Red Cross and English speaking charities encourage Brits to volunteer One year after signing an agreement with the British Embassy, the Red Cross has taken fresh steps to get English speaking charities to work more closely with their local groups and to encourage more English speakers to volunteer. The British Consulate, along with Pedro Dominguez, newly hired by the Red Cross as European residents’ coordinator, Read More
The Con Is Over A serial conman wanted by police for a £21,000 fraud in the UK has been arrested on the Costa Blanca. Norman Fowler went missing in 2014 after being sentenced to nine months in jail at Norwich Crown Court. The 38-year-old, from Colchester, was later arrested by the Guardia Civil for unrelated gun licensing matters, but Read More
Agent Arrested A National Police officer has been taken into custody and had bail refused by an Alicante police court, after being accused of crimes of sexual abuse and assault involving under age teenage boys. Extensive investigations by the National Police led to the arrest of the 32-year-old agent, with indecent images of children found on his Read More
Checking Limits La Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) has upped the number of mobile radar speed traps across the Valencian region with a focus on roads which have seen an increasing number of accidents. Monitoring was increased over last weekend’s holiday period and one route that is being covered more extensively is the N-332 between Torrevieja and Santa Pola. DGT Read More ... Read More
Turning Turtle 20 of a batch of loggerhead turtle eggs that were found on La Mata beach in Torrevieja during the summer have hatched at La Albufera beach in Valencia. The eggs were discovered by tourists and were transferred to the safety of La Albufera. A total of 85 eggs have been monitored by volunteers since then and the Read More ... Read More
Square Eyed Spain is television crazy, with average figures showing that people watch TV for 226 minutes a day, putting it in one of the highest viewing brackets in the world. Figures from Kantar Media say that the Costa Blanca and the Valencia region are the hotbed for viewing, with the largest amount in Spain, clocking in Read More ... Read More