Hello!

I’am new here, but first of all I would like to say that this is really a great forum! There seem too be so many nice and helpful people here. This summer me and a friend of mine visited Spain for the first time. We went to the island of Mallorca. We were totally amazed by this beautiful island! And to judge from the other postings here I’am not the first and will not be the last that falls in love with this fantastic country! But I wonder if you could help me with a question. I saw so many tourists that acted so rude there. I mean, I can understand that one needs to relax on holiday, but one don’t have to give up normal, stright politeness I think. Of course I also met many nice people from all over, but many just didn’t show any respect. There were so much carbage all over, some seemed to just throw things right were they were walking. Too much loud music and yelling from the hotel rooms when the party was going on, some throwed their balcony chairs down to the pavement., and so on. It seemed that somebody didn’t care about anything, just beacouse they were outside their own country. I think that when someone visits another country, one should be as polite as if you were going to visit somebody’s home. But inspite of this, all the spaniards were so friendly, patient, helpful and welcomming! I was so impressed by their friendly, positive way! You can really be proud of yourself! I have never experienced so hard working people ever. From early in the morning till late at night, they all kept the wheels going. On this background, the way some visitors behavied, made me feel a bit ashamed sometimes, being “a tourist”. My question is that don’t you ever get tired of all the tourists? I have read some place that Spain has about 50 mill. Visitors every year. That’s quite a number! But how do you cope with this yearly “invation”? I guess some think it’s ok, and some don’t, and maybe you have adjustet to this after years, but still…It could be interessting if someone has some opinion on this. Well, I have nothing against common fun and happines, so I hope you don’t misunderstod what I have written here. I also want to add that I had a wonderful staying, I really enjoyed it very much! And my friend and I shurely wants to come back to see moore of this facinating country and it’s people!

Hi Helena - I was very interested in what you wrote. I'm English and my wife is from Andalucia, her parents live in Malaga (no, we didn't meet on a beach in the Costa del Sol!). Over the years I've spoken with them many times about tourism and tourists, and the impact it has had on Spain, and on Andalucia in particular. It seems clear that despite numbers like 50 million, the mass tourism is still confined to beach resorts (such as those in Mallorca and the Costa del Sol). Even the city of Malaga, which is the capital of the Costa del Sol, is not much affected by foreign tourists. They get on their tour coaches at the airport and are taken to their hotels, where by and large they stay. Palma de Mallorca is rather similar.

All the opinions I've heard about the tourist boom from Andalucians have been generally positive, and it is recognised by everyone that tourism remains the "motor of the economy". As for the "hooligan element", it seems not to bother people. As long as it's confined to a few places (where hardly any Spaniards live), it's generally looked on with amusement. The attitude seems to be that these Northern Europeans live such miserable lives in their cold, wet countries that it's inevitable that some of them will go crazy when they spend all day in the sunshine!

Hi El Boqueron,
I think you are wrong when you say that the Hooligan element don't affect us. I can tell you that we don't like foreigners coming to our country and trashing it. When there is a football match and british are coming we close our bars and restaurants because british break everything. They get drunk, are rude and we are VERY tired of that. Spaniards don't like to go where british go for vacation because they think that our girlfriends and wives are there only for their entertainment. We even have tried to close the airport when the hooligans are coming. And another thing is that british have the feeling that Spaniars are there to serve them.
By the way, we are still waiting for them to return Giblraltar.

Hey Sevilla - well, I was just reporting what Spanish people had said to me over quite a few years, including people who live in Torremolinos and who are surrounded by tourists (including British) all year round. The football hooligan thing is a separate issue, which I wasn't talking about.