Who Are We?

AND Autovia Costa TropicalThe majority of the population on the Costa Tropical is found on the western side of the Costa Granadina, as it was long known. Almuñécar is the de facto epicentre of its tourism sector whilst Motril is its commercial capital.

Motril, with its port, is the base of the only industry on our coast; i.e., the refinery and paper mill. It also has a powerful market-garden sector and to a smaller degree, tropical fruit one.

Motril Port has a potent future ahead of it, thanks to the new autovias (A-44/A-7) and direct access from these communication arteries right up to the docks. The port is also home to its fishing sector, which is winding down, but still carries weight.

Finally, it has a small tourism sector based on Playa Granada/Poniente, and if you want to stretch its reach, you could include from Torrenueva to Calahonda.

Almuñécar’s prime income comes from tourism, followed by a dwindling agriculture sector in terms of income and what has become only a symbolic fishing industry.

Most of the hotels on the Costa Tropical are situated in Almuñécar; there are more in this municipality than in the rest of the coastal towns put together.

Which brings us to Salobreña, with its soon-to-be hotels which will bolster its main bread winner, tourism. At present, the only hotel in town that stays open all year round is Hotel Miba, which was opened in recent years.

Since the eclipse of sugar-cane production, Salobreña has fallen back on a sizeable tropical-fruit sector.

Salobreña wisely decided against allowing plastic farming along its coastline, permitting the only such installations almost out of sight in Lobres. When you have a castle like Salobreña’s, you’re selling views of the Sierra Nevada and coastline to your tourists, not square kilometres of plastic, after all.

La Herradura, always on the brink of independence from Almuñécar, has everything that its neighbour has, but much less of it, but even so, it is viable as an independent entity.

To round off the Costa Tropical, we have Carchuna to La Rábita, which are, in effect, a string of coastal towns and villages growing along the old N-340. The prime industry is plastic farming and in second place, national tourism; i.e., Spanish tourists. Each town or village has its merits, which are too numerous to attempt mentioning without forgetting any.

We couldn’t conclude the mention of towns and villages belonging to the Costa Tropical without including: Lentegí, Otívar, Jete, Molvízar, Itrabo and Vélez Benaudalla, all of which depend on agriculture but offer tourist-captivating views and winding narrow streets.

But, above all, we foreign-born Costatropicalenses are proud to live where the majority of the population is Spanish. We want Spanish friends; we want our kids to go to Spanish schools and we want to use our Spanish wherever we shop or dine – if the opposite were true, we would have chosen the Málaga’s Costa del Sol.

(News/Opinion: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

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