The early December, bank holiday, El puente de la Constitución, was not good for trade on the coast, but then again, it rarely is, as it falls at the end of the Autumn rainy season.

If it’s good weather – it rarely is – people from Granada come down to the coast, but if it isn’t, they’ll either stay at home or go up to the Sierra Nevada, if it isn’t too cloudy.

Perhaps one of the most indicative factors of how few visitors there were to the coast was an absence of traffic cones on the N-340, splitting the 2-lane stretch between Salobreña and the Granada turn off into three lanes to handle the extra down or return traffic.

Anyway, the chief opposition party in Almuñécar, the CA, decided that the weather and the would-be visitors opting to save their shekels for Christmas, were not the only factors in play; the Town Council were also responsible.

“The Mayor’s fictitious Medieval Fair worsened the crisis for the sector,” claimed the party’s spokesperson.

The spokesman said that local businesses are struggling to make ends meet as the low season takes its toll, which is bad enough without the ‘efforts’ from the Town Council. Eight hotels have closed for the season, he pointed out, some of them for the first time, combined with the town having fewer tourist attractions, such as the aquarium and the bird park… and the “abandonment” of the mountain park, Peña Escrita; the closure of the parking under the municipal market; the town looking shabbier… all this, argues the CA, has caused a large drop in tourism, which was evident by the occupation figures during the bank holiday.

And to top it all off, fumes the CA, the Mayor comes up with more unfair competition for local businesses in the form of the Medieval Fair, which the CA considered a thinly disguised extra competition in the form of bags, jewellery, food and even drink stands….

Did we mention that it also rained?

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)