At the Birthplace of Mass Tourism, Hotels Try to Reinvent Themselves
Sun, sand, and social distancing at the Spanish resort town of Benidorm, where closures are up, occupancy is down, and revamps are under way.
Levante Beach in Benidorm after the town’s beaches were reopened.
Photographer: Denis Doyle/Getty Images
Few places are as tied to mass tourism as the Spanish resort town of Benidorm. It’s often dubbed the birthplace of package tours, and on a typical summer day its broad beaches, towering hotels, and palm-lined promenades are jammed with visitors seeking sun and surf. This year it’s been more about silence and social distance.
So in mid-July, as Ramón Martínez watched the first mask-clad guests enter his 320-room Hotel Presidente after four months of lockdown, he was overwhelmed with emotion—akin to what he imagines locals felt when the first foreign tourists arrived in the 1950s. “I told the staff, ‘This is incredible,’ ” Martínez says. “It was a special moment.”