Expats are angry at the treatment Benidorm has received from the media. Rachael Ann Loxston reports.

Just recently British TV has begun a "love affair" with the holiday resort of Benidorm.

It all began earlier this year when Tiger Aspect productions made the sitcom of the same name starring Jonny Vegas.

It proved a minor hit with viewers although most critics detested it. The Guardian wrote, "It is not very funny and horribly coarse", but it survived and a second series is currently being filmed in the town.

It depicts a typically all-inclusive stay at one of the city's many skyscraper resort hotels, with an occasional escape into cheap karaoke bars all washed down with lots of lager and greasy fry-ups. For the faint- hearted it isn't, but it is supposed to represent an element of truth.

It is this "truth" however, that has upset many expats that live in and around one of Europe's biggest holiday resorts.

Local journalist Derek Workman,  says a negative image of the resort  "is unfortunately maintained through malicious press who prefer to jibe at a sitting sun-drenched duck than actually look at just how far the city has come." It is fair to say Benidorm's reputation was sealed in the British lager lout heyday of the 1970s and 1980s.

Other recent media projects for the town include 'Royle Family' star Ricky Tomlinson filming a 'Wish You Were Here' type show which redresses the balance a little by featuring the Benidorm's many esteemed Spanish tapas bars.

He is also producing and hosting his own documentary about 'How to live in a Resort for Under 20 Grand'. The down-to-earth star owns a caravan in Benidorm and holidays there 4 weeks a year. He says "The site (Camping Almafra) is one of the top holiday resorts in Europe, with three pools and a beautiful restaurant where you can get a four-course meal and a beer for GBP4."

Believe me, I live near there and the resort is a testament to state of the art 21st Century architecture, with not a burger bar or karaoke singer in sight.

It has a beauty salon and gym and the majority of people who holiday there, own static homes that are luxurious and modern.

Benidorm has nine huge campsites where the British holiday or live all year round and who are a hardy self-reliant bunch who would never dream of taking an all-inclusive holiday or frequenting the cheap beer and chip bars favoured by the average holidaymaker.
 
As well as all this attention, hot on the heels of the success of Benidorm the sitcom, the same production company commissioned 'Benidorm Unpacked' a three part series featuring larger than life expats, mainly a motley crew of cabaret entertainers.

For the many expats who live in and around Benidorm this was a step too far. Why? Because many seem to be sick of Benidorm's stereotyped image as a resort that offers cheap warm lager, fish and chips and has- been tacky cabaret acts. Although this is in some way true of one particular area of Benidorm, namely the Rincon de Loix area with its Union Jack emblazoned bars and dodgy tribute acts,  such as  Pete Loaf  and  Francis   Wussi, it is not entirely representative of a resort which many of the Spanish love too.

Eighty per cent of Benidorm's holiday makers are actually Spanish.)
As local writer and columnist for The Costa Blanca News Iain Frewer says "Benidorm is whatever you want it to be." It is very diverse with something for everyone.

It is a relatively new resort. Some 35 years ago it was largely unspoilt and undeveloped. The three main beach areas of Levante, Poniente and Cala de Finestrat were naturally beautiful bays and the village of Benidorm rapidly grew round the old narrow winding streets and a beautiful old church (Saint Jaime) which still exists today.

Now known as Casco Viejo (Old Town) this is where the majority of Spaniards descend every year for its wonderful tapas bars, designer shops and and luxury hotels.

Expats who came over in the 1970s to start businesses came to the old town; where there are a number of traditional English style pubs…I say pubs and not the cheap plastic bars that you will find in the new area, such as The Pig and Whistle, Dominos and The Bodhran Irish bar which rely on traditional entertainment, such as bar games, rather than an emphasis on the ubiquitous large screen regurgitating English football matches.

Alongside these are Spanish and international restaurants and at night the whole area comes alive with generations of Spaniards and foreign residents alike taking a promenade. Old and young alike join in a typically Spanish hubbub…to shop, to eat and drink, to meet and talk or just enjoy the atmosphere and the nearby walk along the beautiful Levante beach.

It has the sedate and relaxed atmosphere of any Spanish town, but with a difference; there is something for everyone of all nationalities, tastes and sexual persuasion. Sophisticated modernity vies with tradition.

TV producers forget about the town's many green spaces that dot round the high rises (many of which are state of the art and futuristic) and the surrounding stunning natural beauty of the Sierra Bernia and Sierra Helada mountains which hug the resort and which are just a twenty minute walk from the town and are a gateway into picture postcard villages such as Finestrat and Guadelest.

They forget about local film festivals, the art galleries, and classical music events that vie alongside bingo and karaoke because it is easier to perpetuate a myth of vulgar cheap holidays.

David Gibbon holidays to Benidorm three times a year to enjoy "The Spanish cultural side" and criticises the makers of such programmes.

He says "It's sad that that Benidorm gets a bad press, usually from people who have never been or explored the town." Ask many a British tourist who comes to Benidorm for a holiday what they remember and you can bet they would not have even been aware of the existence of the old town, which is only a ten minute walk from the brash bars of Benidorm, or the world beyond their hotel poolside sun bed but for those of us that live in the town, they are our secrets that we share with the Spanish and some enlightened European tourists.

[Copyright Expatica 2007]

[November 2007]

Subject: Spanish news