'Benidorm en Cifras' confirms an improvement in tourism activity and in the labor market

The City Council has published a new edition of 'Benidorm en Cifras', a biannual publication that compiles numerous data that allow to know "the reality of the city" and the services it offers, and that this time sees an improvement in tourist activity and of the labor market. So it has been moved today by the mayor, Toni Pérez, during the presentation of this publication, which the City Council edited for the first time 22 years ago, and has been accompanied by the Councilor for Employment, Mª Jesús Pinto, and the municipal sociologist , José Antonio Núñez de Cela.

The councillor indicated that the 2018 edition includes indicators that show changes in the configuration of the city and its urban scene, such as the increase of pedestrian areas.

Pérez indicated that the figures show that tourism in the city is "an upward sector", in which the offer and the quality of it grows. In fact, "there continues to be a slight increase in the number of hotel beds, centered on the 5-star and 4-star segments", which add up to 110 and 687 beds respectively since 2016. But that growth is not limited to the hotel offer, since that they have also increased "in more than 3,500" the available places in tourist apartments and around a hundred in camping. This upward trend also occurs in catering establishments.

This growth "is accompanied by an increase in demand", since tourist overnight stays have also increased. Specifically, "hotel occupancy has been higher than that registered two years ago, reaching 84.46"; and overnight stays "have been superior in all types of accommodation": more than 520,000 in hotels, more than 227,900 in tourist apartments and more than 273,500 in campsites.

The mayor has indicated that there are indicators that corroborate this increase in tourist and economic activity such as the increase in waste collection -more than 2,900 tons over 2016-, and the selective collection rate of waste - 476 tons more in the case of glass and 56,000 kilos of packaging. "Another important vector" to take into account to measure tourism activity is water consumption "that although it has increased has not done much, which also shows that we continue to deepen the best use and reuse of water "

Deepening the sustainability, the data confirm a decrease in the consumption of electric energy linked "to energy saving and efficiency measures" adopted in the public and also in the private sector, and to the introduction of natural gas -which was placed in 2017 in more than 52 million kilowatt hours

The X-ray of the labor market is also better now than two years ago. In fact, the unemployment rate has been reduced between 14% and 16% compared to 2015 in the best and worst month of the year for hiring, respectively. Contracts that have also grown to 30% in the weakest month of work, as reported by the municipal sociologist.

About the novelties of 2018, the mayor has stressed that "you begin to visualize" the commitment to "more sustainable mobility policies." Thus, the urban pedestrian zones "add up to" 95,000 square meters ". The section on urban equipment also includes "the routes enabled for bicycles in any of its modalities" with a network "that reaches almost 70 kilometers".

Another novelty is the incorporation of data from the Department of Youth and the municipal electronic headquarters, "a means of communication and contact with citizens that has involved 232,330 interactions between the City Council and the administrated.

Núñez de Cela, meanwhile, has referred to the results of the "commercial activity", which "maintains data very similar to those of 2015.

In total, 1,200 copies of the 'Benidorm en Cifras' have been published and will be distributed in municipal public buildings and schools. The digital version is available on the municipal website www.benidorm.org.