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Local Spain
10 hours ago
- General
- Local Spain
Inside Spain: 'Not my Virgin' and Booking.com crackdown
It may not be Holy Week in Seville, but the Virgin Mary is the talk of the town currently. That's because a restoration of an effigy of their patron Virgin - La Virgen de la Macarena - is not up to the standards of locals, who they say has been excessively beautified or 'yassified'. Yassification, for those not in the know (we weren't either) involves editing someone or something in a photo so that they are almost unrecognisable, with unrealistic beauty features. To be clear, this isn't a repeat of the notorious Ecce Homo restoration from a decade ago, where a fresco of Jesus Christ left the Son of God looking like a mix between a monkey and a character from a horror movie. Some heavier eyeliner yes, a bit more rouge perhaps, more contoured eyebrows even, but to the untrained eye not a botched job that deserves such rampant condemnation. Then again, who are we to judge? The fervent adoration Sevillanos have for their Macarena is deeply ingrained in their character, and if there has been such a furore over the restoration job perhaps it's for a reason. You only have to witness locals' weeping during Semana Santa as her effigy is carried through the streets to understand how important La Virgen is to them. Seville's Governing Board of the Macarena Brotherhood has issued a statement apologising to all its members and devotees for any "moral and devotional harm" that may have been caused by the restoration of María Santísima de la Esperanza Macarena, which was meant to improve her image after years of damage caused by candle smoke. Her original gaze, described as a mix of joy and sorrow, has been brought back, the 'fake eyelashes' ditched, the droopy eye lifted. Sevillanos are breathing a sigh of relief. To an outsider, especially those with Christian beliefs, the events of the past days showcase how different religious devotion can be here, and that Spanish or Andalusian Catholicism very much has its own idiosyncrasies that not all of us can fully understand. This comes after Spain's leftist government also ordered Airbnb to take down illegal 66,000 holiday let ads off its platform last May. For anyone who's used this comes as no surprise, as nowadays there are just as many if not more private property owners advertising their holiday homes on the site as there are hotels. For those hoping holiday lets in Spain to disappear as a means of addressing the country's housing crisis, the clampdown is unlikely to make much of a difference, although it still sends out a message to unlicenced holiday let owners. The Amsterdam-based platform has said that the 4,093 non-compliant adverts represent "less than two percent" of its 200,000 properties in Spain and that it had always collaborated with the authorities to regulate the short-term rental sector. Most of them were located in the Canary Islands, one of the regions hardest hit by overtourism and spiralling property prices and rents. "We're making progress in the fight against a speculative model that expels people from their neighbourhoods and violates the right to a home," far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy wrote on social network Bluesky. As positive as it may be to know that Spanish authorities are taking the rampant proliferation of tourism apartments a bit more seriously, it's still a drop in the ocean. It's also worth noting that it's not a black-white matter, there are thousands of people who rely on the revenue they make from their second home to get by in Spain. If anyone should be targeted, it's the big corporations that are buying up apartments and turning them into more remunerative Airbnb-style lets, reducing the stock of long-term rental properties and residential properties to buy. An article in Spain's Cadena Ser news website recently pointed out that 4 in 10 tourist flats in the country don't show their licence and that 'nothing happens'. In essence, town halls turn a blind eye because they don't their neighbours and/or voters to be negatively affected by the clampdown. "There's no will because they don't want to upset those who work in this field. Spain thrives on tourism, and hotels are no longer able to cope with the dramatic increase in demand in recent years," Alejandro Inurrieta, academic at Madrid's Complutense University, told Cadena Ser. However, this could be about to change in the coming days, as on July 1st all short-term and temporary lets in the country have to register with the Spanish government.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘We left behind our spouses and grown-up children': The rise of the girls' trip
This story is part of the June 28 edition of Good Weekend. See all 21 stories. Think 'early explorers' and it's often names like Marco Polo, Francis Drake and Captain James Cook that spring to mind. Not so much Jeanne Baret – the first woman credited with circumnavigating the globe after she joined the botanical expedition of French captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1766, with the help of her lover and professional partner in botany, Philibert Commerson. She did it dressed as a man until she was eventually found out, at which point Bougainville wrote in his journal, 'her example will hardly be contagious.' It's only taken the best part of three centuries, but Baret – and the countless corseted would-have-been female explorers denied the chance to travel – may yet get the last laugh. One of the hottest trends in travel over the past 10 years is women carving out 'me time' from work, family and caring responsibilities, to either travel alone or in all-female groups. 'The 'mumcation' is a whole new world of sisterly misadventure that recently opened up to me,' says financial services professional, Kathryn Hanes, who late last year joined her sister and two of her oldest friends on a week-long trip to New Zealand, which they dubbed 'Mothers Uncorked'. 'We left behind our spouses and nine (mostly) grown-up children and walked up and down mountains, around lakes, through valleys and talked and talked and talked,' says Hanes, who is in her early 50s. 'It was so thrilling to have a holiday where the backing track wasn't 'Are we there yet?' with an 'I'm bored' chorus.' Hanes' two children are now aged 22 and 18, but she well recalls the 'draincations' with young kids: 'So often on family holidays there's no real downtime, days are planned with military precision,' she says. 'This was the first time since my 20s that I felt truly open to spontaneity again. But unlike in our 20s, we now have well-paid, full-time jobs, so the trip wasn't on a shoestring. We had long, lazy meals with lovely plonk. It was bliss.' Whether setting out in all-female groups or alone, more women are embracing the shift. In a survey by online portal 54 per cent of female respondents said they planned to travel solo in 2024. More than 64 per cent of the world's travellers are women, according to New York-based Skift Research's 2024 The Woman Traveller report, and women over 50 are the fastest-growing cohort. Almost a quarter of women aged 55-plus said they would prefer to travel solo than with their spouse and kids. Such figures are no surprise to Jenny Gray. She created the Women's Expedition product range in 2018 for Australian-owned Intrepid Travel. The tours make a particular effort to support women-owned and operated businesses. 'We launched our Women's Expedition range seven years ago, when we realised more than 63 per cent of our travellers were female – and they were telling us they wanted to better understand and connect with women in a range of destinations and cultures,' says Gray. Today, women aged over 45 represent the fastest-growing demographic for the Women's Expedition category, and many are booking into an all-female trip on their own: 'They are prioritising themselves like never before,' says Gray. 'An increasing number of them are repeat travellers with us. It's not that they want a 'soft' option, they just want the logistics taken care of, and to travel with like-minded women.' India is the top-selling Women's Expedition for Intrepid's Australian customers, with a newly created women-only trip to Saudi Arabia and a long-standing tour to Morocco the next most popular. An increasing number of operators, including Banyan Tours in New Delhi (overseen by Lucy Davison), Girls' Guide to the World and India Design Tours (run by Nicole Court, based out of Sydney) also facilitate trips for women to India. Australian outfit Pink Pelican Tours was founded last year. Next year it will run five women's tours, to Italy, Indonesia and Slovenia. 'The Bali Girls Tour and the Italy Food Tours book out the quickest,' says Pink Pelican's director, Felicity Armstrong. 'Women are redefining what it means to live fully, independently, and on their own terms. They feel less pressure to wait for a partner, family or friends before they travel. The narrative has shifted from 'being selfish' to 'self-worth'.' Loading When it comes to travelling solo, safety remains the number-one concern for women, according to the Skift report. But technology has made things easier; laptops, mobile phones, global roaming, WhatsApp and online travel-support forums offer a greater degree of contact and backup. And there's more airplay online about the safest places to visit. Spartacus World's 2025 Gay Travel index nominates Canada, Iceland, Malta, Portugal and Spain as all excellent for LGBTQ+ friendliness, a factor that tends to mirror safety indexes for women. New Zealand consistently rates highly, as does Japan, Norway, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Roving communications consultant Erin Forster, 33, spent almost six months in 2024 travelling through Europe and Asia, mainly solo. 'For my age group, solo travel is seen as normal,' she says. 'It can also be an even more social experience than travelling with friends. Travelling alone is something I wish I'd done much earlier. The personal growth you experience when pushed outside your comfort zone can't be underestimated.'
The Age
a day ago
- The Age
‘We left behind our spouses and grown-up children': The rise of the girls' trip
This story is part of the June 28 edition of Good Weekend. See all 21 stories. Think 'early explorers' and it's often names like Marco Polo, Francis Drake and Captain James Cook that spring to mind. Not so much Jeanne Baret – the first woman credited with circumnavigating the globe after she joined the botanical expedition of French captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1766, with the help of her lover and professional partner in botany, Philibert Commerson. She did it dressed as a man until she was eventually found out, at which point Bougainville wrote in his journal, 'her example will hardly be contagious.' It's only taken the best part of three centuries, but Baret – and the countless corseted would-have-been female explorers denied the chance to travel – may yet get the last laugh. One of the hottest trends in travel over the past 10 years is women carving out 'me time' from work, family and caring responsibilities, to either travel alone or in all-female groups. 'The 'mumcation' is a whole new world of sisterly misadventure that recently opened up to me,' says financial services professional, Kathryn Hanes, who late last year joined her sister and two of her oldest friends on a week-long trip to New Zealand, which they dubbed 'Mothers Uncorked'. 'We left behind our spouses and nine (mostly) grown-up children and walked up and down mountains, around lakes, through valleys and talked and talked and talked,' says Hanes, who is in her early 50s. 'It was so thrilling to have a holiday where the backing track wasn't 'Are we there yet?' with an 'I'm bored' chorus.' Hanes' two children are now aged 22 and 18, but she well recalls the 'draincations' with young kids: 'So often on family holidays there's no real downtime, days are planned with military precision,' she says. 'This was the first time since my 20s that I felt truly open to spontaneity again. But unlike in our 20s, we now have well-paid, full-time jobs, so the trip wasn't on a shoestring. We had long, lazy meals with lovely plonk. It was bliss.' Whether setting out in all-female groups or alone, more women are embracing the shift. In a survey by online portal 54 per cent of female respondents said they planned to travel solo in 2024. More than 64 per cent of the world's travellers are women, according to New York-based Skift Research's 2024 The Woman Traveller report, and women over 50 are the fastest-growing cohort. Almost a quarter of women aged 55-plus said they would prefer to travel solo than with their spouse and kids. Such figures are no surprise to Jenny Gray. She created the Women's Expedition product range in 2018 for Australian-owned Intrepid Travel. The tours make a particular effort to support women-owned and operated businesses. 'We launched our Women's Expedition range seven years ago, when we realised more than 63 per cent of our travellers were female – and they were telling us they wanted to better understand and connect with women in a range of destinations and cultures,' says Gray. Today, women aged over 45 represent the fastest-growing demographic for the Women's Expedition category, and many are booking into an all-female trip on their own: 'They are prioritising themselves like never before,' says Gray. 'An increasing number of them are repeat travellers with us. It's not that they want a 'soft' option, they just want the logistics taken care of, and to travel with like-minded women.' India is the top-selling Women's Expedition for Intrepid's Australian customers, with a newly created women-only trip to Saudi Arabia and a long-standing tour to Morocco the next most popular. An increasing number of operators, including Banyan Tours in New Delhi (overseen by Lucy Davison), Girls' Guide to the World and India Design Tours (run by Nicole Court, based out of Sydney) also facilitate trips for women to India. Australian outfit Pink Pelican Tours was founded last year. Next year it will run five women's tours, to Italy, Indonesia and Slovenia. 'The Bali Girls Tour and the Italy Food Tours book out the quickest,' says Pink Pelican's director, Felicity Armstrong. 'Women are redefining what it means to live fully, independently, and on their own terms. They feel less pressure to wait for a partner, family or friends before they travel. The narrative has shifted from 'being selfish' to 'self-worth'.' Loading When it comes to travelling solo, safety remains the number-one concern for women, according to the Skift report. But technology has made things easier; laptops, mobile phones, global roaming, WhatsApp and online travel-support forums offer a greater degree of contact and backup. And there's more airplay online about the safest places to visit. Spartacus World's 2025 Gay Travel index nominates Canada, Iceland, Malta, Portugal and Spain as all excellent for LGBTQ+ friendliness, a factor that tends to mirror safety indexes for women. New Zealand consistently rates highly, as does Japan, Norway, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Roving communications consultant Erin Forster, 33, spent almost six months in 2024 travelling through Europe and Asia, mainly solo. 'For my age group, solo travel is seen as normal,' she says. 'It can also be an even more social experience than travelling with friends. Travelling alone is something I wish I'd done much earlier. The personal growth you experience when pushed outside your comfort zone can't be underestimated.'
Toronto Sun
a day ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Spain makes Booking.com scrap 4,000 tourist rental ads
Locals are concerned about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing A tourism boom has fuelled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing in Spain Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP MADRID — Online hotel booking giant on Friday said it had taken down thousands of advertisements in Spain in the leftist government's latest crackdown on illegal short-term tourist rentals. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account A tourism boom has driven the buoyant Spanish economy but fuelled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing, a top priority for the minority coalition government. 'We have deleted a very small number of adverts in Spain at the request of the consumer ministry for supplying valid licences,' said in a statement. The Amsterdam-based platform said the non-compliant adverts represented 'less than two percent' of its 200,000 properties in Spain and that it had always collaborated with the authorities to regulate the short-term rental sector. The consumer rights ministry on Thursday announced had scrapped 4,093 illegal ads, most of them located in the Atlantic Ocean's Canary Islands, a top tourist destination. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Spain has also ordered online tourist accommodation giant Airbnb to take down more than 65,000 adverts for violating licence rules and has been in a legal battle with the US-based company. The world's second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024, but residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighbourhoods. 'We're making progress in the fight against a speculative model that expels people from their neighbourhoods and violates the right to a home,' far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy wrote on social network Bluesky. Toronto Raptors Sunshine Girls Music Canada Celebrity
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First Post
a day ago
- Business
- First Post
Booking.com deletes 4,000+ listings amid Spain's rental crackdown
Spain's tourism growth has supported the national economy but has also raised concerns over housing availability and affordability, issues that remain a key focus for the current coalition government. read more A general view shows tourists dance inside a discotheque near Playa d'en Bossa beach, during a housing crisis that many locals blame on overtourism in Ibiza, Spain. Reuters a major online hotel booking platform, announced on Friday that it had removed thousands of listings in Spain following a request from the country's consumer ministry. The move comes as part of the government's ongoing efforts to regulate short-term tourist rentals. Spain's tourism growth has supported the national economy but has also raised concerns over housing availability and affordability, issues that remain a key focus for the current coalition government. In a statement, said it had taken down a limited number of listings for not providing valid licences, as requested by the ministry. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Amsterdam-based company noted that the removed listings accounted for 'less than two percent' of its 200,000 properties in Spain, and emphasized its continued cooperation with authorities to regulate the sector. On Thursday, the consumer rights ministry reported that 4,093 non-compliant listings had been removed, with most located in the Canary Islands, a popular tourist region. Spain has also ordered online tourist accommodation giant Airbnb to take down more than 65,000 adverts for violating licence rules and has been in a legal battle with the US-based company. The world's second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024, but residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighbourhoods. 'We're making progress in the fight against a speculative model that expels people from their neighbourhoods and violates the right to a home,' far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy wrote on social network Bluesky.
