The Spanish National Statistics Office has just published figures which show that the number of Spanish Nationals staying in Benidorm has gone up by 3% this year compared with the same time last year.In fact Benidorm was placed in the national top 10 for hotel occupancy rates.For July the occupancy rate was 85%.

On a national level the Valencia region was placed fourth behind the Balearic Islands,Cataluna,and the canary Islands after registering an overall occupation rate of 64.75%.This all sounds very optimistic but in Denia the tourism campaign has proved to be disappointing.It shows a 5% drop from the same period last year and almost a 10 point drop on 2007.Opposition party members on the council are making criticisms of the tourism department in the townOpposition councillors will always make such criticisms but the reality is that you cannot make people visit a town.It appears that there was a great deal of “propaganda”issued but the criticism is that very little that was proactive was actually done.

It has been claimed that the Denia beaches have been in a bad stateand that this has damaged the image of the town.The retalliation from the ruling PP has been that these criticisms do not do the reputation of the town any good.Denia is an interesting town to visit but maybe the hotels,cafes and restaurants need to look at whether they are truly value for money.