Benidorm will declare 'Pedro Zaragoza Orts Year' on the centenary of his birth

Benidorm City Council will declare 'Pedro Zaragoza Orts Year' coinciding with the centenary of his birth to "remember and spread his figure, works, actions and legacy". This was agreed today by the Board of Spokespersons unanimously at the proposal of the mayor, Toni Pérez, establishing the periodicity of this event from next Sunday, May 15, until May 14, 2023.

Favorite Son of Benidorm, his figure and performance were key to the configuration of modern Benidorm, fundamentally in the tourist and urban areas.

As established in the motion that the plenary will vote on, "for his life, works and commitments with the people of Benidorm" he was "a unique person". He was also a "defender of the region and the province", as well as a "fundamental supporter of municipalism and defender of the financing of tourist municipalities".

Born on May 15, 1922, in Benidorm, after training in Alicante and the Barcelona Nautical School, he developed various jobs as a travelling salesman and in the business world. After the death of his father, he returned to Benidorm as a director of Caja de Ahorros del Sureste de España, accessing the Mayor's Office on December 10, 1950, and holding his position until the summer of 1966.

Among the most outstanding events of his management is the bringing of drinking water to Benidorm, a fact that recalls the stone placed in 1960 in the Elche Park fountain with the inscription "Illusion is also lived"; or carrying out a General Urban Planning Plan that "defined a risky, futuristic and innovative urban concept" and that was a model for all the tourist municipalities of Spain "by defending the beaches like no other point on the Mediterranean coast".

In his commitment to tourism, for which he found the involvement of the people of Benidorm, Pedro Zaragoza "knew how to find and develop the most sensational promotion formulas", "inventing a highly effective form of direct marketing".

“Attentive to trends and with a vision of the future, he did not oppose the use of bikinis on the beaches” and “supported the celebration of a Song Festival” that “capitalized on national and international attention” and that “even today is a successful benchmark.

A restless person, after finishing his political stage he graduated in Law, specializing in urban planning, and later graduated in Tourism, being an honorary professor at the School of Tourism. In the last stretch of his life, he also began studying Journalism.

Throughout his career he collaborated with different media and made various publications, highlighting 'This will be Benidorm' (1955). He always lived closely the culture and traditions of Benidorm, as well as the rest of the province of which he was a great defender from his responsibility as president of the Provincial Council.

Probably, he is “the only Spaniard in possession of Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals of Tourist Merit.

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