save tourism!

Roquetas de Mar has grown with tourism. In 1970 it had 15,000 inhabitants, in 2022 there were 103,000. The city was developed for mass tourism from 1967 onwards, but the masses of tourists are missing. The restaurants are empty and Almería airport is almost deserted. On https://www.prof-mueller.net/spanien/roquetas/urba-turistica/ I have published many photos and videos from Friday, 02.08.24 between 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. In other tourist resorts the streets and restaurants are quite full and the bars are also filling up. In Roquetas de Mar only the parking lots were full, the town was empty. With my professional background I could help to change this situation.

On Mallorca and elsewhere in Spain there were some xenophobic protests this year. The pro-government initiators blame the tourists and residents for the tense housing situation. But at least here many apartments are empty. In 2023, there were over 2,000 sales offers on the website pisos.com - with around 100,000 inhabitants. However, private owners avoid renting due to excessive tenant protection. The risk of getting rent nomads is too great and an eviction suit is extremely difficult. This should also apply to Mallorca; the tourists and residents are then probably just scapegoats. But if Mallorca really feels overwhelmed, then local politicians and entrepreneurs from our town should actually take action immediately to present themselves to tourists as an alternative.

Most hoteliers, restaurateurs and shop owners would like to attract these tourists to Roquetas de Mar. So far, Roquetas de Mar has not shown any initiative to win over the guests that Mallorca wants to drive away. In 2023, around 18 million guests were registered on Mallorca. If 20% of them look for another holiday destination, you would have a target group of 3.6 million customers. It is not clear whether the politicians are simply missing the opportunity or whether they are deliberately trying to abolish mass tourism. It would not be economically sensible, because the infrastructure is there. But which politician thinks about economic sense?

I have developed a few ideas and sent them to relevant places, including the town of Roquetas de Mar. The head of product development at a German tour operator called me and estimated that our town needs a party mile to serve as a replacement for Mallorca. If it were built, they would be in business. In the current situation, however, his company will be looking for alternatives in Bulgaria and Turkey. There are agricultural areas between the Aldi and the football stadium that would be suitable. They would only have to be designated as commercial areas in the development plan. As a temporary solution, the rarely used bullring could perhaps be converted into a provisional large-scale disco with mobile soundproof walls. Then you would need a shuttle bus from the tourist zone. It would be important to spread the message that Roquetas de Mar wants to take in the tourists who have been driven out of Mallorca.

Source: Google Maps

All that would be needed is a political signal that guests are welcome here. In the end, it would not even require financial support from the state, just political coordination.

- City administration
- Hotels
- Restaurants and retailers through their associations
- Almeria Airport
- Rich private individuals as investors + banks
- University of Almeria, Department of Tourism

should sit down at a table and initiate the establishment of a private project development company, whose equity could be raised by economically interested parties. This could refinance itself from rental income after the party mile has been created.

There was almost no reaction from the Spanish side. Only a professor from the University of Almería replied to me briefly with the information that Spain only supports projects for sustainable tourism. This is probably due to the EU funding guidelines (see https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/de/sheet/126/tourism). Because Europe's largest vegetable growing area is located right behind the beaches, called Mare Plastico because of the greenhouses, it is not a structurally weak area. But eco-tourism cannot be sold in this neighborhood. Despite the unattainable EU funding, it would make economic sense to use the existing infrastructure for mass tourism as a replacement for Mallorca and not let it fall into disrepair. Without EU funding, however, Spanish politicians seem to do nothing. There are signs everywhere showing which EU funds have funded a measure. The politicians seem like drug addicts who no longer develop their own drive without the drug of subsidies. Their thoughts only revolve around how they can get new drugs.

In view of the recent election results in Germany, politicians should take note that the EU is not a money-printing machine and that Spain will soon have to earn its own money. If Roquetas de Mar now allows its tourist infrastructure to deteriorate, Europe will not provide a replacement. Foreign pensioners are not cows that you just have to milk. Among them there are also many talents that can be useful for a city. They should recognize that the Spanish variant of xenophobia, which is currently being shown above all in Mallorca, but also in the Canaries, in Barcelona and Malaga, but also in the Spanish bureaucracy, is damaging to their country in the long term. Roquetas de Mar, with its many empty apartments and without the official justification for the protests, should be the first city to be able to recognize this potential.

Source: Google Maps

Almeria airport still has some free capacity and Roquetas de Mar is easily accessible from Almeria by public bus. Ryanair flies to Almeria from London. If there is corresponding demand from Germany, this airline could react quickly.

In our town, the urbanisaciones turisticas (Urba for short) were built in 1967 on dry fields (instead of green meadows) about 4 km south of the town. The tourist infrastructure is concentrated on Av. Mediterraneo and Av. Playa Serena, which leads into the Paseo de Golf. About halfway between the town and the Urba there are two 4-star hotels right on the beach and a considerable distance from the family, pensioner and golf hotels in the Urba. There are shops and restaurants in the area, and 800 m away is the Aldi in the Urba. The gaps between the town and the Urba have now been closed. At this point, however, the town is quite narrow. About 700 m inland, agricultural land begins.

If a "Ballermann Center" with a large disco, bars and fast-food restaurants were built on one of these areas, this could be interesting for partygoers. This could not only be tourists, but also young people from the surrounding area, including the city of Almeria. This concept could be expanded if more hotels were to target this target group.

Source: Google Maps

Development perspective: yellow in the development plan to be gradually designated as commercial areas with entertainment venues. The previous agricultural area would have an enormous increase in value and the owners could in return commit to corresponding investments.