Benidorm and the birth of package tourism
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 July 2020
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Spanish town of Benidorm is now one of the world's most popular holiday resorts - receiving more than 10 million visitors a year. The hotels and skyscrapers are the vision of Benidorm's mayor in the 1950s and 60s, Pedro Zaragoza. Zaragoza personally convinced Spain's dictator, General Franco, to allow more tourism - and to allow sunbathers to wear the bikini. Simon Watts introduces the memories of Pedro Zaragoza, as recorded by Radio Elche Cadena Ser shortly before his death.
PHOTO: A busy day in Benidorm (Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of Witness History from the BBC World Service |
| 0:47.2 | with me Simon Watts. Today I'm bringing you the story of the man who turned the small Spanish town, Benidor. |
| 1:04.0 | Okay ladies and gentlemen, here we are coming into Benidor, your holiday resort. |
| 1:08.0 | Every year millions of tourists arrive in Benidor, |
| 1:12.0 | Mon Spain's Costa Blanca to enjoy a week or two of sun, |
| 1:16.8 | sand and nightlife. |
| 1:18.4 | Fantastic beaches here in Benidor. |
| 1:20.4 | You've got the fly up on the endi, the sunset beach, which we're coming in by now, and we've got the Pli of Pontienti, the Sunset Beach which we're coming in by now, and we've got the |
| 1:25.0 | Pla Levante. |
| 1:27.1 | And it's the creation of one man, the former mayor Pedro de Ragossa. |
| 1:32.2 | Every part of his being from his twinkling eyes behind the glasses to his big white |
| 1:36.2 | mustache is energetic and alert. For a short person he has the personality and the |
| 1:41.4 | resonant voice of a giant and modern day Benadorm with its skyscrapers |
| 1:45.8 | and booming tourist industry is all thanks to him. |
| 1:52.4 | The late Pedro Zaragotha became Mayor of Benadorm in 1950, |
... |
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