Spain's Benidorm embraces its Franco-era tourism model

Fifty years after General Francisco Franco's death, Benidorm still clings to the mass tourism model it pioneered under his dictatorship, even as protests against overtourism sweep other Spanish holiday hotspots.

- ALFONS LUNA

Built on bikinis, skyscrapers and package holidays, the industry reshaped socially conservative Spain’s image abroad and brought in much-needed foreign currency.

“There are no car factories here, no soap factories. What we have is a factory of hotels, restaurants and businesses that make our visitors happy,” said Angela Barcelo, 72, the owner of the Hotel Les Dunes in the Mediterranean beach resort.

Her grandmother opened it in 1957, when Spanish women needed their husband’s permission to open a bank account.

“What Benidorm is today is thanks to the women,” Ms Barcelo said, recalling how local men were often away at sea while women managed the family assets and opened many of the first hotels and guesthouses.

A former seafaring village of whitewashed houses and just 3,000 residents, Benidorm has mushroomed into a city of more than 100 skyscrapers whose population swells to 400,000 on peak August days.

This transformation was the work of Pedro Zaragoza Orts, Benidorm’s mayor from 1950 to 1966 and an enthusiastic supporter of the ultranationalist Falange movement that backed Franco's rule.