ANDALUCIA TOURISM NEWS OCTOBER 3 2002

CARMEN SHOT IN SEVILLE
Packs of mules, carts, water carriers, horse riders, guards with bayonets ready – and 130 extras have taken the Seville rector ship back to what it was two centuries ago – the tobacco factory where Merimé located the opera 'Carmen' – this beautiful and passionate woman whose life now unfolds under the orders of the director Vicente Aranda. Actress Paz Vega and actor Leonado Sbraglia bring the fictional Carmen and her lover Don José to life. The first scene of this film shot in Seville is a general view of the façade of the factory, when the bell tolls to announced the start of the working day and the cigarette girls enter the main door of the building, accompanied by passing horses, the entry and exit of carts, all under the gaze of the soldiers from the Napoleonic time who were guarding the building. The shooting of 'Carmen', which will last some ten weeks, will also visit other Andalucian cities and towns such as Écija, Córdoba, Ronda, Osuna and Carmona, in search of landscapes, palaces, the climate and the beauty spots which the director Vicente Aranda has discovered in Andalucía.

FLAMENCO ROUTE IN CÁDIZ
There are few localities in Cádiz which do not have a flamenco peña or club, and very few villages in the province don't have some flamenco performance or competition as part of their festivities. To better promote and enjoy these the Provincial Tourism Board has published a guide which covers the most varied and interesting flamenco displays of the area. Craft workshops, fiestas, routes covering the sites of musical legends, clubs, museums and historical sites linked to the most genuine form of artistic expression in Andalucía. The route includes a trip round bars and flamenco venues, through the more than 50 clubs which exist in the province of Cádiz, as well as listing those workshops with a link to flamenco. Among the fiestas and festivals in Cádiz the Noches de Bajo de Guía which are held in Sanlúcar de Barrameda are outstanding, the flamenco nights in Vejer de la Frontera, the Flamenco Thursdays in Cádiz itself or the Fiesta de la Bulería in Jerez. An indispensable guide to make sure we miss nothing related to flamenco in the province of Cádiz.

CÓRDOBA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
The renovation and extension of the Córdoba Archaeological Museum is a complicated and delicate task. It's being carried out in phases and has a global budget of more than 4 million €. The intention is to make the facilities more attractive for the public and worthy of the pieces stored there. The museum is unique in itself. The exhibition area is in a renaissance palace designed by Hernán Ruiz, the same architect of Córdoba Cathedral. But what really makes the museum exceptional is that on the same site an 125m diameter Roman theatre is buried – the largest from the ancient Hispania. Extension work is now underway to give the Museum an exhibition hall, events room, library and laboratories. The final objective is to make the Roman Theatre on display to the public, once the archaeologists have completed their work. The interior galleries and the remains of the seating already revealed indicate that the final result will be quite breathtaking.

DECREE ON ECOTOURISM
The regional tourism council is working on the setting up a decree which will regulate the practice of so called 'ecological' or 'ecotourism' in the Andalucian region – anew sector in tourism which is seen which great potential for development in the region, given that Andalucía contains 50% of protected areas. The idea is to promote new forms of tourism without damaging the environment. The Junta de Andalucía will also study a definition of 'ecotourism' given that it is already confused with sustainable development when applied to the tourism industry. Ecotourism consists in the development of tourism in places of a high natural value. To do so the Junta de Andalucía will establish the limits which will control the activity in protected areas, in a way which their development can be regulated, and adequate limits be put in place in the areas where it is carried out.

ANDALUCIAN NATURAL SPACES CD
The landscapes and nature parks of Andalucía are valued highly by visitors. A survey carried out by the Regional Tourism Council has shown that Andalucian tourists, as well as Spaniards and Foreigners, give these environmental spaces a mark of nearly nine out of ten. Andalucía has some of the most beautiful nature parks across its eight provinces, with landscapes which are the admiration of all who visit them. The Environment Council has published a CD ROM with information on the facilities and services open to the public in the network of protected natural spaces in Andalucía. The CD ROM, of which 15,000 copies have been made, will be given out in all the education centres in Andalucía. In it more than 600 sites open to the public are listed which the Environment Council offers in more than 30 protected natural spaces in Andalucía.

VISITS TO THE SANTA CATALINA CASTLE, JAÉN
One of the places which we must visit if we go to Jáen is the beautiful and spectacular Santa Catalina Castle. The castle has a Tourist Information Centre which last August welcomed around 14,000 visitors, which means something more than 500 people a day. This information centre opened its doors on June 14 this year. Since then, according to the Jáen city hall, the place has become a new attraction for the city and one of its most visited places. A large number of the visitors come from European countries such as Holland, Germany, England or Italy, as well as from other Andalucian provinces and from Jáen city itself. The Santa Catalina Castle has recovered the different periods of the fort and has open areas such as the stables or the prison. A visit to the interactive museum lasts about an hour, and takes back through the history of Jaén to 40,000 years ago.

GRANADA CD ROM
A new CD-ROM has just been published by the Junta. The virtual flight which we can make with the help of a computer and without leaving home, takes us through Granada, Málaga and Almería, and look particularly at the landmasses of the Sierra Nevada, Cerro Gordo, Tabernas and at Cabo de Gata. The CD brings together satellite images captured in real time – so the Sierra Nevada appears with little snow as it was recorded in the summer of 1999. The CD ROM also has an automatic program so that you can watch it on the computer as if it was a video. But the user can also become the pilot and fly over the area he or she wants at the speed or height he or she desires. Any route or place can be selected and shows the corresponding lay of the land.