THE THEATRES IN THE UNITED STATES SOUND OF FLAMENCO
The most important theatres in the United States will fill this week to enjoy the best flamenco from Andalucía. Eva Yerbabuena, Antonio Canales, El Güito and Mayte Martín are just some of the artists which will perform in the main theatres of North America between January 25 and February 10.
The performances, called the USA Flamenco Festival, form part of a promotional campaign which the Andalucian Tourist Board starts in the states this week, and which continues through the months of January and February. The promotional part centres on drawing attention to the art and heritage of Andalucía, showing the cuisine of the region, and promoting better knowledge of flamenco. In addition the board plans to present three routes which make up the Legado Andalusí. These first events have a budget of €1.20 million, 200 million ptas, and are centred on New York and Washington, the two cities which suffered the attacks on September 11.
The tourism board has high expectations of the North American market, and, according to figures advanced by the tourism councillor José Hurtado, 18% of the American tourists who come to Andalucía come back again, with an average journey time of 11.5 days. So, to this end the tourism board intends to spend €18 million in 2002 on events in the USA.
The promotional tour centres on some special days where the tourist board will hold contacts with professionals in the sector. In addition the events will be added to with a series of gastronomic days in which eight of the best Spanish restaurants in New York will take part, and give free bottles of olive oil to their clients.

PRIZES FOR THE COSTA DEL SOL TOURISM BOARD WEBPAGE
The Costa del Sol tourism board web page has won two new prizes which value the design, content, aesthetics and originality of the site. Both the awards add to six already won since the page went online last June.
The prizes awarded to the tourist board web are the 'Ciberweb 3 Award' and the 'BT Design Best Site Award'. The content and the design of the site, which can be found at www.visitacostadelsol.com have been the two most praised aspects by the award givers. However the jury has also highlighted the entertaining, educational and informative character of the pages.
The web page of the Costa del Sol tourist board is, without doubt, a magnificent window display for Málaga and a complete encyclopaedia of the services and attractions on offer in the province.

MORE THAN 20 MILLION TOURISTS IN 2001
Andalucía has reached a historic record welcoming more than 20 million tourists to the region last year, according to a statement from the regional tourism councillor José Hurtado. The figure represents an increase of 10% over the year 2,000 and is double the most optimistic forecasts from the tourism authorities.
The high influence of tourists in the region has also given rise to an increase in income for the industry of 8% to reach a figure now over 12,020 million €, some two billion pesetas.
Although the definitive figures for the Andalucian tourism year will be officially released at Fitur, the Madrid tourism fair, the first estimations from the tourism department show an intense growth for the sector, which will recover from a certain stagnation seen in the year 2000, when tourist numbers were up only 2% after seven years of large increases.
Despite the consequences of the events of September 11th saw a fall in the number of tourist flights, tourism remains the main motor of the Andalucian economy and this region continues to be favoured by Spaniards and foreigners alike.
According to the first figures from last season, the growth seen in Andalucian tourism has tripled that seen in the rest of Spain, where the average increase was 3%. As regards forecasts for this year, Hurtado said that the introduction of the Euro coins would help impulse tourism growth. His department thinks that the Euro will support residential tourism, a growth sector, and the purchase of a second home by tourists.

MALAGA PORT GREETS MORE THAN 130,000 CRUISE PASSENGERS IN 2001
Despite the crisis which has affected the international tourist industry, Málaga port has become one of the most secure ports in the Mediterranean for many navigators and this has meant that it has closed the year 2001 with the visit of 202 cruise ships which brought more than 130,000 passengers. Although last year Málaga port did not meet the magnificent figures of 1999 when 245 liners tied up, the final balance from last year remained positive, given that for the third year the Málaga port beat the 200 cruise line and 130,000 passenger limits.
Without doubt the busiest day for Málaga port was on November 3 when 7 boats tied up bringing more than 4,000 passengers. According to the figures from the City Tourism department, of the 130,000 tourists which disembarked in the city during 2001, 70,000 remained in the city to investigate the sights, while the rest headed for points along the coast such as Marbella, Mijas, Ronda and also Granada.
The perspectives for the forthcoming years are very positive, given that Málaga with its forthcoming Picasso Museum, is lining up as a future focus for cruise lines. In addition, the future construction of more facilities for cruise ships and the use of a new Levante dike will help to re-launch this type of tourism in Málaga.

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY AFRICAN CHILDREN
The Spanish Association Con Acnur has opened an exhibition in Jaén called 'A day we had to flee – the words of the children, the paintings by the children'. 20 drawings and nine stories are on display from children refugees aged between 10 and 17 from countries in the horn of Africa, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia.
It seems that the idea of the exhibition arose when a member of the Acnur cooperative organised some workshops on a refugee camp in Kenya where the children could tell some stories about their countries of origin and their experience as refugees. After the workshops it was decided to compile the results into an exhibition which has already been on show in Great Britain and some other Spanish cities.
The show can be seen in the Palacio Municipal de Asuntos Sociales in Jaén until Jan 24, having already passed through the Reina Sofia in Madrid and galleries in the Basque Country, Navarra and Valencia. In Andalucía it will travel on to Córdoba, Almería, Huelva, and Cádiz.
The Spanish Association Con Acnur has organised the show in collaboration with the Junta de Andalucía and the Social Services department in Jaén.

START OF CARNIVAL COMPETITIONS
The Falla grand theatre in Cádiz is dressed up once again for the start of another year's festivities in the traditional carnival group competitions. The celebration, last weekend of the local pestiñada, erizada and ostionada festival, gave the starting gun to the classification phase of the adult competition, the first day proper of which took place on Monday 14 January. The more than 200 groups, among them infant, youth and adult, which will perform on the stage of the Falla theatre have made this edition of the Cádiz carnival the largest ever.
Possibly the star subjects in this years event will be Bin Laden and the Trade Centre Twin Towers, with the arrival of the Euro or the future filming of the new James Bomd movie in the city with the offer to the lady mayor Teófila Martínez to appear in the film.
The adult classification phase continues until January 25, the adult semi-finals are held between January 26 and February 4 and the Grand Final will be held in the Falla theatre on February 8.

RURAL TOURISM CLIENTS IN ANDLAUCÍA
The National tourist remains that to take up the offer of rural tourism accommodation in Andalucía. At least that's what the latest data from the National Statistics Institute seems to show, revealing that the Andalucian region registered 11,245 overnight stays in November last year, of which 9,827 where Spanish residents and the rest foreigners.
According to the INE figures, the number of travellers to arrive in rural Andalucía last November was 4,447, of which close to 4,000 were Spanish. That represents a 16% occupancy rate for the month overall and the rate in apartments being slightly higher at 19%.
77% of the tourists in Andalucía that month came from elsewhere in the region, with 10% from Madrid, 2% from Valencia and just over 1% from Aragón.

DEOMLITION OF THE GRAN HOTEL ATLANTERRA
The Cádiz province coastline returned to the image it had back in the 70's, before the high rise developers moved in, on January 10 this year. 175 kilos of explosives put the final end to 20 years of legal arguments and converted the Gran Hotel Atlanterra into a pile of cement and steel. It had been considered one of the worst examples of over development on the Cádiz coastline.
In only a few seconds, the Gran Hotel Atlanterra was converted into 100,000 tons of rubble.
None of the locals wanted to miss the event which put the end to those 20 years of legal arguments and gave a forward step towards a better protection of the environment.
Another hotel complex will be constructed on the site, but the new building will meet the tough environmental limits outlined in the coastal law.