{"id":205100,"date":"2025-06-22T12:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T12:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/205100\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T12:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T12:30:09","slug":"battle-in-benidorm-with-seaside-town-torn-in-2-as-spain-tourists-avoid-brits-like-plague-travel-news-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/205100\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle in Benidorm with seaside town ‘torn in 2’ as Spain tourists avoid Brits like plague | Travel News | Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The popular tourist resort of Benidorm<\/a> in southern Spain has been split in two as Spanish tourists have revealed they try to avoid Brits<\/a> at all costs, branding them as “rude and disrespectful”. Benidorm has become a popular destination for Brits due to its Mediterranean climate with long, hot summers, lively nightlife and a strong British presence with many hotels, restaurants and shops employing English-speaking staff.<\/p>\n

However, Spanish<\/a> holidaymakers head to the Costa Blanca for a relaxing staycation and view those from the UK as the symbol of overtourism in the region. As a result, the seaside town has been divided into two, with Spaniards sticking to the traditional streets of the “Old Town”, while Brits flock to the pub-packed “New Town”. Stephen Critzov, who has lived and worked in Benidorm for three years, said: “The British stay in one area and the Spanish stay in one area”.<\/p>\n

Not all locals, however, are against the divide, because it keeps Benidorm peaceful. “I want then [the Brits] to stay away from this area,” Ariadna Perez, 22, who works at an ice cream shop in the Old Town, told MailOnline<\/a>. “Not many people like the British tourists,” they added. “Some British tourists are rude they’re drunk and sometimes they’re very rude and disrespectful.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, hotel receptionist Gosec Torres, echoed sentiments and protests that are spreading across Spain – that the growth of the tourism<\/a> industry and demand for short-term rentals, like Airbnbs<\/a> and other holiday accommodations, have caused rents for locals to soar.<\/p>\n

“I think tourists now are not the right tourists it has to change,” Torres said. “The flats are mostly for tourists and the people that are working here have no flats.<\/p>\n

“The British when they’re drunk they’re not good.”<\/p>\n

Alex Perez, 37, who has lived and worked in Benidorm his whole life, said the behaviour of a certain “type” of British tourist who flock to the New Town has declined significantly in the last decade. The main issue, he said, was the arrival of stag dos<\/a>, which has turned Benidorm into Magaluf<\/a> in Majorca.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It used to be more families and now it’s drugs<\/a> and drugs on drugs,” he said. “They’re not respectful, you can see them straight away they’re [urinating] everywhere and walking across the streets with drinks.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have anything against the Brits, but the ones who come to this area are the worst.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The popular tourist resort of Benidorm in southern Spain has been split in two as Spanish tourists have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[15484,82647,46837,9980,50331,535,75778,2000,299,75046,82644,56260,2863,82645,104,82642,82643,82646,82648,5006],"class_list":{"0":"post-205100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-airbnb","9":"tag-behaviour-decline","10":"tag-benidorm","11":"tag-british-tourists","12":"tag-costa-blanca","13":"tag-drugs","14":"tag-drunk","15":"tag-eu","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-magaluf","18":"tag-new-town","19":"tag-old-town","20":"tag-overtourism","21":"tag-rude-and-disrespectful","22":"tag-spain","23":"tag-spanish-locals","24":"tag-split-in-two","25":"tag-stag-dos","26":"tag-the-worst","27":"tag-tourism"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114727028207873252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}