Benidorm: The Yanks are Coming

John F Kennedy airport in New York

The Benidorm tourist authorities are hopeful that we'll be hearing some very peculiar English accents around town next year if their promotional activities bear fruit.

There are two new flights starting to Alicante which could bring thousands of extra visitors to the area's most popular resort, Benidorm. Next June, Delta Airlines will commence a four-times-a-week route from John F Kennedy airport in New York, which should carry around 50,000 passengers. Tourist bosses are already planning campaigns in the USA to engender more knowledge about the area and increase passenger numbers.

Ryanair, fresh from abandoning Valencia airport because of lack of support from the local authorities, will start a twice daily flight from London Gatwick on 18th December. Hotel bosses in Benidorm reckon that the town will benefit from most of the extra passengers these flights will bring, given the popularity of Benidorm with the British.

Interestingly, they also believe that with the rise and rise of budget airlines – Alicante airport has just grown another 7% - and independent travel, the thrust of the town's marketing should not be in tourist fairs for the travel industry, but on the streets of the towns and cities where Benidorm's visitors live!

21 November 2008 Stephen White.