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.

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Baby born in Spanish hotel due to hospital blunder

A woman in Galicia, Spain traveled to the hospital, as her contractions were "at first every four minutes, then every three." However, the hospital said she was not in labor and sent her home.

Despite the frequency of Margarita's contractions, the doctors at Hospital Virxe da Xunqueira in Cee, La Coruña, in their infinite wisdom, sent her away.

However, as the family's home in Merexo is quite some distance from the hospital and it was already 9pm on Sunday night, Margarita and her partner decided to stay over for the night at Hotel Insua.

She told regional daily La Voz de Galicia, "I realized we weren't going to make it very far."

Not far indeed, as it turns out that baby Marina was born just two hours later in room 216.

Despite the fact that the hotel is only a few hundred meters from the hospital, the couple were told that it would take 25 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, so there was no choice but to have the baby in the hotel room.

Manuel, the new father, said that he was managing to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing, but that he was a little on edge, due to "two days with no sleep".

The 35-year-old mother, Margarita, who has two other children, was said to be "tired" but otherwise fine after giving birth to healthy, 2.78kg baby Marina.

It seems hotel staff was unaware of the events in room 216 until doctors and an ambulance crew turned up to take the newborn and her mother to the hospital.

"Because it's not everyday something like this happens," Pilar Insua, owner of the hotel sent flowers to the family and invited them to stay at Hotel Insua free of charge to celebrate baby's Marina's first birthday.

The hotel even posted an photo of the baby on their Facebook page.

As to the registration of the birth, the medical report merely states "born Avda Finisterre, 82" (the hotel's address), as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/353613