“We are the garden of the Costa del Sol”.
If you haven’t been to Estepona, in the heart of the Costa del Sol for some time, you won’t recognize it. The change has been radical in recent years.
It has been a somewhat quiet transformation that has given the city back its pride and good image lost for reasons beyond its control.
The increase in tourism has been spectacular, up 48% in 2013, and investor confidence has recovered.
To a large extent, the person responsible for all this has been its current mayor, José María García Urbano, who with imagination and scarce means has achieved the miracle.
-Mr. García Urbano, do you boast about your town?
It is not that I boast, the neighbors boast. Esteponeros are happier than ever and have regained pride in their city. Now they love to walk through it and bring their friends and family.
The changes have been incredible in everything. Although there are some that are less noticeable, because they are of internal organization of the City Council, but they are essential to balance and order the accounts, which is what allows us to undertake the structural reforms that we needed.
I would say that this transformation of the city has been in three aspects: on the one hand, in everything related to the maintenance and care of gardens and beaches, which is being done in an exemplary way, if I may say so. On the other hand, we have provided Estepona with basic facilities that we did not have, such as a fairground that we are finishing and a theater for six hundred spectators that is also very advanced.
And the third aspect, the easiest to see when you get to the city, is the ornamentation and arrangement of the old town, which is now worth a walk, walk around, because it is full of flowers, smells …. It is an enhancement of a historic center that has a network of streets from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries very interesting and well preserved. We are doing all this with murals, plants, sculptures, poems on ceramic plaques, etc.
-Are you noticing, then, an increase in the flow of tourists visiting the city?
The perception is daily. Before the streets were full of cars and potholes, now they are full of flowers, trees and joy; and sometimes bicycles. Just yesterday I passed a group of Japanese with their cameras. That was unthinkable before. You would meet them in Ronda, in Granada… but not here.
-You define Estepona as the garden of the Costa del Sol?
Yes, it is a concept that we are demonstrating with facts: among other things, more than 9,000 flowerpots have already been placed in the streets. The patios of Cordoba, so famous, can have two or five hundred at the most and here every street is a garden.
-What other projects do you envisage to make the city more attractive to tourists?
There is one in particular that I think is very interesting. It is about installing a large artificial geyser off the coast, which would be unique in the Mediterranean. It is already designed and we are just waiting for the authorizations to start the works.
The idea is to generate a marine fountain about 250 meters from the shore that will produce a jet of 100 meters high. Like a building of more than thirty floors. It will be seen from all points of the bay of Marbella and Estepona, from Gibraltar and even Ceuta. It will be accompanied by a set of lights and sound, which will make it very attractive at night, and will undoubtedly become a focal point of reference.
-When is it scheduled for?
The work will take three months, and as soon as we have the authorization we will start working. If we get the authorization now, it would be finished by early summer.
-Estepona has eight golf courses of 9 and 18 holes. What does this sport represent as a tourist segment for the city?
Golf is very important to us because it is a fundamental element of attraction, especially in the low season.
And to the fields we have here we must add those of Marbella and Benahavís, in this sort of golden triangle that we have on the Costa del Sol, in which we have almost forty in just thirty kilometers.
There are many visitors who come to practice this sport, and there is also a phenomenon little known in previous years, that the people of Estepona are starting to play golf. And that is very good, that we not only have fields to attract tourists but also for Estepona residents to practice this sport.
-There are golf courses in Estepona designed by great architects of international prestige. Is this, I suppose, a very useful plus when promoting them?
Of course. The names of Bernhard Von Limburger, Gary Player or Cabell B. Robinson arouse the interest of fans of this sport.
-In addition to golf courses, Estepona has a perfect hotel plant to accommodate golf tourism…
We have a large concentration of four and five star hotels that are very good, very well located and managed by important brands of great international prestige. They are architecturally outstanding buildings, always on the beachfront, and in the best locations along our 23 kilometers of coastline. Not all cities have been reserving plots and facilities for hotel plant in places like this.
As for brands, we have, for example, Kempinski, which is a world reference, to which we have just made a special recognition on the day of Andalusia for its work and contribution to the city.
ESTEPONA, CHANGE OF CYCLE
“From 2012 to 2013 the increase in tourism has been impressive” -wants to emphasize García Urbano. “It has increased by 48%. These are INE (National Statistics Institute) data, not ours. It is a formidable rise because the city is regaining the place it should never have lost.”
“We have always had a great tourist facility, a magnificent climate, but the Estepona brand fell apart years ago due to the stories of corruption and cheap politicking that took place during a period of time. Now the city’s image has fully recovered. And I have a very clear proof, which is the confidence of investors”.
“We have recently put a plot of land out to tender to build a shopping center with hotel equipment and three companies have presented themselves for an investment of about 40 million Euros. More and more companies come to each tender we make because there is seriousness, security…. Things are much better than before, when we did not move a single piece of paper from anyone who wanted to invest here. Estepona is going upwards, in a change of cycle. It is as if the starting signal had been given for a new era for the city…”.
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