Spaniards spend less on fast food than most EU countries

According to a new study, Spaniards are only beaten by Italy in buying the least fast food in Europe.

The study was run by the EAE Business School to analyze consumption habits during 2014 and the results are now out. Reportedly each person in Spain spends on average only €42.60 a year on fast food, with only Italians spending spending less.

According to Marta Riera, author of the report, explained there are two reasons for this.

“The fast food market is smaller in Spain than in the rest of Europe, and we are also more aware of the importance of consuming healthy products; we have the Mediterranean diet, and we make less use of these kinds of places.” 

While Spaniards spend less than most Europeans, they do, apparently spend more at each individual fast food restaurant visit with the average amount being €4.26, which is almost double that spent in the UK and Germany and triple that spent in the United States.

Among the various Spanish regions, three stand out for buying the most fast food - the Balearic and Canary Islands and Madrid - spending on average €98, €61 and €50 per inhabitant per year, respectively. The study attributes the higher figures to the amount of tourism in these areas. The regions that spend the least include Extremadura, La Rioja, Valencia and Aragon at between €20 and €30 a year.

During the period between 2008 and 2014, fast food spending did increase by a modest 5.73 percent, but the study sees the figure shooting up by around 50 percent in the next five years, what with economic recovery and the new and healthier fast food lines being introduced by major suppliers. Home delivery services being set up in various regions and an increase in the number of fast food establishments were also taken into account.

As to the fast food preferred by Spaniards, hamburger, pizza and sandwich joints are the most popular with McDonald's taking the lead with a 40 percent market share and around 500 restaurants all over Spain. Next in line is Burger King, the Pans & Co. sandwich chain, Rodilla and KFC. These companies rack up 74 percent of the Spanish food market.

On a more global scale, the Japanese reportedly spend the most on fast food at an average €231.35 per year per inhabitant, closely followed by Americans and Australians. Indians reportedly spend the least at an average of €9.30 per year.

Source: El Pais
Photo via Flickr by Ricardo Ricote Rodríguez/CC BY 2.0

Reverse trend: Now Spaniards head to Morocco for work

Moroccans have been crossing the Med looking for a better life in Spain for decades. Now the trend is turning in a different direction, as out-of-work Spaniards head south to Morocco's shores.

The economic crisis continues in Spain, with unemployment and austerity wreaking havoc with the people, who are just trying to get by and make a living. Now Spaniards are heading south to Morocco, seeking employment opportunities. In the video (original article), we hear from 36-year-old Marcos Martinez Bacelo, an unemployed mechanic, who six months ago moved to Tangier from his hometown in Vigo, Spain, to get a job there. 

 

The hardest part has been the decision he made to leave his wife and two young children in Spain while he headed over to Morocco: “The most difficult part about living here is not having my family by my side,” Martinez, said, while looking at photos of his children, Soraya, 10, and Nicolas, 3.

 

Emilio Rodriguez is another Spaniard who has made the move and now runs a small construction company in Tangier, northern Morocco, where he also sought greener professional pastures.

 

He told AFP, "In Spain at the moment things are going badly."

 

"Over there I sold everything. There is no work, no bank financing," he added, explaining that he had moved to Morocco's port city of Tangiers, just across the Straits of Gibraltar from the southern tip of his home country, Spain, at the start of 2012.

 

Another recent emigrant from Spain is José Manuel Fernandez, who is presently exploring his options in Morocco. Fernandez works for a Spanish company specializing in building golf courses.

 

"I came to see how it goes here. I saw there were lot of facilities, ways of doing things to develop the country, especially in the construction sector," said Fernandez.

 

It seems ironic that for many years, Moroccans have been heading north to Spain looking for a better life, and in fact, they form one of the largest immigrant populations in Europe and Spain has the second largest community of Moroccans.

 

But in recent years, Spaniards have been making similar moves, albeit in a different direction geographically. Apparently it is difficult to assess numbers. as many Spaniards travel to Morocco as tourists and return home every three months to collect unemployment benefits, and also to make sure they do not overstay their visas. 

 

A young Spanish intern with a local NGO said, "Many work informally and regularly travel to Spain to receive unemployment benefits and to avoid being illegal" in Morocco.

 

The Interior Ministry in Morocco, however, is attempting to keep a tighter rein on the back-and-forth process, by urging Spanish arrivals to comply with all the necessary formalities.

 

Officially, 2,660 Spaniards have reportedly registered for social security in Morocco in 2012, which is slightly up from 2,507 in 2011. However, the actual numbers are believed to be much higher. 

 

In the economic world, Morocco's key trading partners are Spain, and also France, the latter country having divided and ruled the country as a protectorate in the past. Morocco does, however, have economic problems all of its own, and despite a growth rate of between 2.5 and 5.0 percent in recent years, youth unemployment in the country currently stands at more than 20 percent.

 

However, this isn't deterring Spaniards from trying to find work there.

 

Marian Gallande told the media, "I arrived in Tangiers with my daughter three months ago. I'm looking for a job."

 

She was also finding it hard to get by in Spain. "I earned €1,000 euros ($1,300) a month, but the cost of living is too high there," she says. "I prefer to be in Tangiers. Spain is my country, it's true," she adds, watching the ships leaving the port, "but I am more at ease here, where society is not closed as some people think." 

 

Spanish King Juan Carlos will be starting a three-day state visit to Morocco on Monday. Relationships between Madrid and Rabat have apparently steadily improved in the more than five decades since Morocco achieved independence.

 

Possibly he should rather be exploring why so many of his own people are leaving for those same northern African shores.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354379

Spanish tourists start a return to the Costa del Sol

After a bit of a break, most probably due to the economic crisis, local tourists are now back on the Costa del Sol.

 Beach at Torremolinos 

Torremolinos is now the second most popular destination in the country, second only to Benidorm, in terms of hotel occupancy.

Good news indeed for local tourism in southern Spain, as tourism figures for May confirm an increase in the popularity of the Costa del Sol for Spaniards, after a two-year decrease in occupancy.

Sur in English says that INE (National Institute of Statistics) is reporting that domestic tourism figures are up by 20.6% in May compared with 2012, and the number of hotel nights are up by 19%.  This all adds up to an additional 25,383 Spanish visitors, staying 57,000 more nights than they did in May last year.

The positive upward trend coincides with the campaigns launched by the Junta de Andalucía and central government to encourage Spaniards to "holiday at home."  With a country as versatile as Spain, the possibilities are, of course, endless.

Reportedly, the numbers of foreign tourists visiting the Costa del Sol also increased in May by 13%, which meant a 12% increase in overnight hotel stays.

INE reckons that 301,934 foreign tourists visited the Costa in May, reserving 1,258,199 nights in hotels.

So far, Torremolinos has benefited most from the increases and is now second only to Benidorm for hotel occupancy.

May saw 79.7% of Torremolinos hotels booked, an increase of 13% on overnight stays compared with the same time the previous year, bringing a total of around 495,000. 

Generally in Andalucía there was an increase in hotel stays of 11.4 per cent in May.

Good news indeed for a country who relies so much on tourism, especially during these difficult times.