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Date Published: 04/11/2021
ARCHIVED - Alicante president meets with UK Spanish ambassador to support Brit expats on the Costa Blanca
High on the agenda was the current 90-day limit (in a 180-day period) with British second-home owners facing 2,500 fines if they stay in Spain longer
President of the Alicante Provincial Council, Carlos Mazón, met with the Spanish Ambassador to the UK, José Pascual Marco, in London this week to address the situation of British expats on the Costa Blanca post-Brexit, and to discuss the possible extension of the current 90-day stay in every 180 days.
The meeting, which took place on Wednesday November 3 at the Embassy in Chesham Place, was also attended by the director of the Provincial Tourist Board, José Mancebo, and Benidorm Mayor, Toni Pérez.
"British residents are a source of wealth for us and one of our best ambassadors for British tourism on the Costa Blanca. They are essential and, as such, we are working on reciprocity so that they can also stay six months in a row in our territory when they come to visit us, in the same way as Alicante and Spanish people can do in the UK," said Mazón.
During the "crucial talks" a number of joint measures were revealed to "put pressure on the British Government to address these issues", he added.
And, according to the director of the Provincial Tourist Board, the meeting "went very well".
"The ambassador is now perfectly aware of the priorities here in Alicante province, [which has] probably the most British in all Spain, with more than 70,000 residents," said Mancebo.
Indeed, the ambassador pledged a commitment to convey to the British government this "urgent need to address the tourism and economic interests of the province".
In recent years, the Alicante Provincial Council's International Residents Department, headed by Juan de Dios Navarro, has launched various information campaigns aimed at British expats living in Alicante, with one-to-one meetings and talks.
But Wednesday's meeting was held as part of the London Tourism Fair, during which the Costa Blanca Tourist Board also signed an important agreement with international tour operators to activate an "extraordinary plan" focused on accelerating British holiday bookings ahead of 2022.
"This strategy, in collaboration with the tourism sector of the Costa Blanca, will be activated in December and will consist of several phases with the aim of ensuring that during the first quarter of next year a large part of UK tourist stays in the province will have already been reserved," explained Mazón.
The tourist sector, in particular Benidorm, has been hit hard recently, following a rebound in Covid cases, with 20% of British holiday reservations cancelled last week.
Image: diputacionalicante.es
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