Benidorm, Spain

Benidorm ( , , ) is a municipality in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

Known as the “New York of the Mediterranean”, Benidorm has been a tourist destination within Spain since 1925, when its port was extended and the first hotels were built, though it would not be until the 1950s that it became renowned as a summer destination for people coming from inland Spain, especially Madrid. Today it is known for its hotel industry, beaches, and skyscrapers and receives as many tourists from abroad as from Spain. According to the 2020 census, Benidorm has a permanent population of 70,450 inhabitants, making it the fifth-most populous town in the Alicante province and the ninth in Valencian Community.

History

It is thought there were settlements in the Benidorm area possibly as far back as 3000 BC, including evidence of Roman and Punic remains. However, settlements in the area were small and it was not until the arrival of the Arabs that the local population began to grow during the era of the Umayyad dynasty. The Christian King James I of Aragon conquered the region in 1245, and Benidorm first officially became known in 1325, when Admiral Bernat de Sarrià of Polop awarded it a town charter as a way of removing the Moors and allowing Christians to inhabit the area. Strategically, the town was also used by Bernat de Sarrià to stop the rising power of Admiral Roger of Lauria, lord of Altea, in the south of the Kingdom of Valencia.

Benidorm's history for the next few centuries was plagued by attacks from the sea by Ottoman and Barbary pirates. The 17th century saw conditions improve for Benidorm and its people, most notably with the construction of an advanced irrigation system in 1666 to channel water to the region. By the 18th century Benidorm fishermen had become famous and sought after all over Spain and beyond. Tuna was their main catch and they perfected the ancient almadraba technique dating from Islamic times. The success of the fishing industry, together with improved local agriculture, helped to fuel a strong local economy. Coastal traffic increased too, bringing more wealth to the region with the town becoming a base for sea captains and the building of their vessels.

In 1952, Benidorm's fishing industry went into decline; this was a factor in encouraging the town council to approve many new development plans aimed at the tourist market.

In 2018, Benidorm became the first city to achieve the UNE178501 Smart Tourism certification, Its "Benidorm, Destino Turístico Inteligente y Sostenible" plan (2015–2020) focuses on integrating technology for sustainable tourism, including energy efficiency improvements, data-driven management, and citizen participation. The city also established a Smart Destination Living Lab to align its strategies with the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Local politics

After giving the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party majorities or pluralities in elections from the restoration of democracy in 1977, Benidorm has favoured the right wing People's Party (PP) since the general elections of 1993. The PP gained control of the local council at the 1995 local elections and won 14 of the 25 council seats in the 1999 and 2003 elections. The 2007 election gave them a one-seat majority over the PSOE, but disagreements in the PP group led to a motion of censure being passed against the PP mayor in September 2009. He was replaced by the socialist Agustín Navarro. In 2019, PP won the local elections, obtaining an absolute majority.

As of the 2019 local elections, the political composition on the local council was the following:

In the 2023 election held on 28 May the results were:

Geography

The town is divided into five parts: ''Poniente'' (''Ponent'' or 'sun setting') and ''Levante'' (''Llevant'' or 'sun rising'), each fronted by a beach of the same name; the old town (also called ''El Castell''); ''La Cala'' situated to the west side of Poniente; and ''El Rincón de Loix'' (or ''El Racó de l'Oix'') situated to the east side of Levante. Between the two beaches lies a rocky promontory and the port.

The old city occupies the promontory and the area immediately inland, while most of the hotels occupy the more recently developed sections inland from the two beaches. A few miles from shore is an uninhabited island known as Benidorm Island or Peacock Island (due to previously having a peacock enclosure) which provides a dramatic centrepiece to the seascape.

In 1954 Pedro Zaragoza Orts, the then young Mayor of Benidorm, created the ''Plan General de Ordenación'' (city building plan) that ensured, via a complex construction formula, every building would have an area of leisure land, guaranteeing a future free of the excesses of cramped construction seen in other areas of Spain. It is the only city in Spain that still adheres to this rigid rule. Most of the streets in the city are named after places such as Avenida de Uruguay, Avenida del Mediterráneo, Calle Pekín, etc. Avenida del Mediterráneo is a wide avenue that crosses Levante and links the old town with Rincón. Avenida Europa crosses Levante at right angles linking the western city limits with the Levante beach.

Benidorm is connected to the FGV railway line between Alicante (''Alacant'') and Dénia. The section to Alicante is now converted to tram operation and trams run at least every half an hour between Benidorm and Alicante (see Alicante Tram). Trains run hourly from Benidorm to Dénia (via towns of Altea and Calp), connecting with the trams at Benidorm station.

Climate

Benidorm has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: ''BSh'') with mild winters and hot sultry summers. The city receives slightly more than 300 mm in precipitation per year and the wettest season is the mid-late autumn. It enjoys more than 2,800 hours of sunshine per year and the average annual temperature is around . The typical maximum temperatures during winter average around , while the typical lows average around . The temperature oscillation is small, being even smaller during summers, during the summer the maximum temperatures normally range from 28 to 32 °C while the lows range from 20 to 24 °C. In almost all of the summer months the average city minimum temperatures at night remain above 20 °C (68 °F), a phenomenon referred to as tropical night. It is also common during the summer for humidity levels to be high, increasing the feeling of stuffy and sticky weather, which consequently increases the heat index.

Tourism

Benidorm has three major beaches: ''Playa de Levante'' (Valencian: ''Platja de Llevant''), ''Playa de Poniente'' (Valencian: ''Platja de Ponent'') and ''Playa de Mal Pas'' (Valencian: ''Platja del Mal Pas''); all of them have had a blue flag since 1987, the maximum quality standard recognised by the European Union. The Gran Hotel Bali, a four-star hotel located in this city since 2002, is a 186-metre-tall building that stood as the tallest skyscraper in Spain for five years, until it was surpassed by the CTBA towers in Madrid and Intempo building, also in Benidorm. The Intempo building is currently the fifth-tallest in Spain and the tallest building in the Valencian Community.

Benidorm is popular with tourists from the UK, Ireland, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. Benidorm's initial growth in popularity can be attributed to the package holiday explosion, and continues year round, due to the night-life based around the central concentration of bars and clubs. There is a large number of free cabaret acts that start around 21:00 and continue into the early hours, while pubs, which are mostly of the British style, can operate until 3 am.

The author and ''Guardian'' journalist Giles Tremlett identified the city as the birthplace of "package tourism" in the book ''Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past'', where he remarked that culturally the city contradicted the conservative notions of National Catholicism that General Franco had espoused. The accessibility of Benidorm to a wide gamut of social strata made the city into an ever so easy target for highbrow sarcasm, as by Jani Allan in the ''Sunday Times'' in 1990: "These days you just have to look at the numbers of wide-bodied jets bearing wide-bodied holidaymakers to Benidorm to realise that package holidays and airborne cattle trucks make fun in the sun accessible to everyone."

The city is quite popular with families. Also, many elderly people from northern Europe pass the winter there. This has ostensibly made the name of the city into something of a synonym for elderly people in those countries, as can be seen, for example, in the Flemish candid camera program ''Benidorm Bastards''. Benidorm's mayor protested against the depiction of the city and demanded that its name be removed from the show's title because it "damages its image."

A 2025 CNN report characterized Benidorm as the "New York of the Mediterranean," a tourist "metropolis" that's distinctive for its "high density of skyscrapers." The report finds the characteristic fruit farmers and the fishermen of the former village gone and replaced by "millions of visitors," one third of whom are British. Its overall take is that the city has now become both an "incredible economic success" and a symbol of the "uncontrolled juggernaut that is Spain’s tourism industry". Nonetheless, while protests against mass tourism, and its detrimental effects on the locals' cost of living, have taken place in tourist destinations across the country, such as Barcelona and others, they are absent from Benidorm.

Events and attractions

Every summer from 1959 to 2000, the city hosted the Benidorm International Song Festival, where artists such as Julio Iglesias, Raphael, or the Dúo Dinámico, first became known. In 2021, RTVE signed a four-year contract with the city to hold the Benidorm Fest, loosely based on the song-festival format, that would determine the Spanish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Every July since 2010, in July, it hosts the "Benidorm Low Festival" for indie music. In 2019, a counterpart of Primavera Sound, Primavera Weekender, premiered at the Magic Robin Hood Camp.

In 2011, Benidorm hosted the start of the Vuelta a España, one of cycling's three grand tours.

Benidorm has hosted open water swimming events of the Oceanman series.

Benidorm features three "family-oriented" theme parks: Terra Mítica is inland from the city, at the foot of the mountain, while Aqualandia and Mundomar are located on the outskirts of the city on the Levante side. Benidorm offers activities for all ages.

An episode of the hit British sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'' was set in Benidorm, titled " It Never Rains...". A TV series called ''Benidorm'' has aired on ITV (with replays on ITV2) in the UK, featuring Jake Canuso, Steve Pemberton, Sheila Reid, and Johnny Vegas. Airing of the tenth series began in February 2018. In 2020, a Spanish comedy series of the same name, starring Antonio Pagudo and María Almudéver, premiered on Atresplayer Premium. Belgian TV channel VTM aired ''Benidorm'', a series based on a Dutch-language theatrical play.

File:Benidorm Exercise.JPG, Early morning exercise (organised by the local council).
File:Benidorm Singing.JPG, Late morning community singing, in Spanish (organised by the local council).
File:Isla Benidorm.jpg, Benidorm Island viewed from a beach of the city.
File:Playa Poniente, Benidorm, Spain.jpg, Poniente beach in Benidorm when the sun sets.
File:Benidorm iglesia 04.JPG, San Jaume church

Demographics

Nationality

Benidorm is one of the most culturally diverse cities in Europe with a high immigrant population. The population in 2010 was 71,198. These figures are for those registered as formal ''residents'' and not long-term visitors.Instituto Nacional de Estadística
,

Education

The École française Pablo Picasso, an annex of the Lycée Français d'Alicante, a French international school, is located in Benidorm.Les données de la zone Europe Ibérique
." AEFE. Retrieved 7 May 2015.

Sport

Benidorm hosted 1992 UCI Road cycling World Championships.

The town hosted the 2008 Beach Soccer World Cup European qualification stages and the 2008 FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup Final

The local football team was for 47 years Benidorm CF who played at the Guillermo Amor Municipal Stadium, until they folded in June 2011. A new club CF Benidorm was formed in 2016, currently playing in the Tercera Federación.

BM Benidorm is a professional handball club and play in the premier division.

See also

* Benidorm Island
* ''Benidorm'' (Belgian TV series)
* ''Benidorm'' (British TV series)
* List of tallest buildings in Benidorm

References

External links

Benidorm City Council

{{Authority control

Marina Baixa
Municipalities in the Province of Alicante
Populated coastal places in Spain
Seaside resorts in Spain