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Spain Looks to a New Kind of Tourism After COVID-19

Graham Keeley

   MADRID - A visionary mayor with a keen eye for the delights of the
   bikini unleashed generations of foreign tourists onto Spain's beaches.

   Pedro Zaragoza Orts transformed Benidorm on the Costa Blanca in eastern
   Spain from an unknown fishing village into an icon of package tourism
   and in the process changed Spain forever.

   In the 1950s, the Roman Catholic Church pressured then-leader General
   Francisco Franco to impose fines on anyone trying to sunbathe.

   However, using powerful friends close to Franco, Zaragoza drove from
   Benidorm to Madrid to persuade Franco of the merits of opening up the
   country to foreign tourism.

   Keenly aware of the need to attract foreign capital to a country which
   was still largely closed to the outside world, the generalissimo turned
   a blind eye to the objections of the Church that the sight of naked
   flesh might pervert the morals of Spanish men.

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