Torremolinos, Malaga. The first major hotel coexisting with small fishing boats

In the early 50’s, tourism was already a complex phenomenon because of its rapid growth, that indicated an imminent massification. One of the biggest decisions was to soften the conditions to enter and move around the country and to make the procedures for obtaining visas easier.

In 1954, an English businessman called Vladimir Raitz set his eyes on Spain. He was the owner of an important travel agency (Horizon Holidays) and pioneer in the management of holiday packages (tour operators). It’s hard to imagine how the Spanish Coast looked when those first explorers came fifty years ago: beaches that remained untouched, fishing houses, small boats … what became colloquially called “Spanish petroleum”.

First comunities open to tour operators were the Costa Brava (Gerona) and Mallorca. These places had a charm similar to the French Côte d’Azur, but with cheaper rates. The creation of efficient airlines and the national initiative, which has specialised in the field of catering and services, helped to the growth of this areas. The Spanish Mediterranean coast started to acquired a fabulous reputation for good service at good prices. Parties all night long, folklore and alcohol began to identify Spain around the world.

In this first stage of the tourist boom, British businessmen, owners of modest tour operators, began to discover unexplored beaches, mainly in the Mediterranean. Once they chose the correct place, they came in contact with the few owners of hotels or lodging in order to begin negotations about the arrival of groups of tourists. Due to financial difficulties in Spain, tour-operators became lenders of hotel’s owners in exchange of the reservation of a number of rooms or the whole hotel. This practice was completely illegal but became a standard practice. Thanks that, the seaside multiplied his value. When the phenomenon began to spread, hotel owners and mayors looked for those tour operators.

From the political aspect, Spains was the only country in Western Europe where a visa was neccesary to enter into the country and many tourists chose not to come. In other hand, the Goverment rejected several offers from European airlines to operate in Spain, especially in Baleares Islands, this fact helped Menorca and Ibiza to keep safe from mass tourism some more years.

Increased competition added to the need to discover the most exclusive beaches ended with the arrival of tour operators to Ibiza and Menorca in 1955. Ibiza didn’t have an airport when it was discovered. In Menorca, the takeoff began with a small hotel, owned by the mayor of the city, whom the idea of receive thirty customers a week make him very happy. Rates got lower due to the competition between hotels: you could have a room and full broad in a hotel for 1£ per day.

A year later, in the Costa del Sol (Málaga) the first airline between Frankfurt and Málaga was born. Thanks to a new airline conexion between Valencia and London in 1957, the Costa Blanca (Alicante) started to be a more important destination for international visitors. In the 60’s, new airline companies incorporated modern engines to their planes in order to make shorter flight hours. From 1958, the Goverment investments made it possible to increase Spanish airports capacity.

Tourism demand increased and international businessmen and mayors become allies. Across all the Mediterranean coastline, traditional fishing villages gave way to sites of great projection and tourist potential. By this time, the Ministry of Information and Tourism was not involved in any way, nor to encourage or to control, which gave freedom to the actions of the mayors, who saw their future in the tourism development.

In the 50’s and 60’s, there were three important points in the Mediterranean Coast: the Costa Brava, the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca. In the coast fo Malaga, a tourism based on the luxury tried to take off over a period of 15 years. This concept was inmediately choked by the mass tourism in the years after and the construction of luxury hotels were carried on between Málaga and Fuengirola, but these buildings were quikly locked in the middle of low cost hotels. This trend had to be rectified due to the massive influx of tour operators and the loss of exclusivity. The case of Marbella is the most symbolic, because it was designed as a paradise of luxury, with huge mansions and private beach areas. By this time, Marbella was the biggest competitor to French Côte d’Azur. The fame of marbella has been linked to some members of the international Jet Set and has attracted some of the largest national and international fortunes. In other parts of the coast of Málaga, small fishing or agriculture towns (Torremolinos, Nerja, Torre del Mar, etc) were transform into holidays cities with hotels, apartments and leisure centers.

The first outbreak in the Costa Blanca (Alicante) was specially linked to the resort city of Benidorm. The best example of urban concentration at service of mass tourism is Benidorm. Even today, this city is the first destination for European holidaymakers since the 50’s. In 1953, the General Urban Plan of Benidorm (PGOU) concerned the whole entire territory as a tourist center. Ten years later, the PGOU was modificated again in order to increase the capacity of the city and grow vertically.

Other parts of the Spanish Coast like Murcia, Cadiz, Huelva or Castellon, followed almost intact until the late 60’s. Although the lack of planning and construction quality was already present in many of these places, the speculation still took a decade before get stablished.

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