Anybody who has lived here for any length of time can only marvel as the laxity of shop opening times and Motril is no exception.

One Sunday at the end of August a large cruise ship docked at Motril Port with 648 passengers on board, 200 of whom had decided to visit the Alhambra, and the rest trooped off into town. But they were to be disappointed because the shops and bars were all closed.

So, what the devil is happening?

With an expected influx of 31,000 ship-borne tourists disembarking at the port this year, you would think that business owners would give up their Sunday lazy afternoon and raise the shutters, opening for business, but that obviously wasn’t the case here, was it.

Why? Perhaps because on Easter Thursday there were 3,000 tourists off a cruise ship in town and of the shops that opened their doors, 30% made a sale and 40% sold nothing. For this reason many business owners consider that the cruise-ship trade is seen as a long-term project, but not very promising at the moment.

Editorial Comment: Over in Almuñécar nobody bothers opening before 10.30h because there is nobody about, the reason that there is nobody about is precisely because the shops still haven’t opened. In other words, shop owners have to make the first move and then be patient for shoppers to catch up.