Benidorm Ends Beach Reservation Controls

Benidorm has lifted restrictions that forced people to reserve a space in order to use local beaches.

Authorities had limited the use of the beaches to those people who made a prior appointment in order to avoid crowds on the sand and avoid an increase in COVID-19 infections in Benidorm, a coastal resort on the east coast of Spain that is part of the Costa Blanca in Valencia.

Reservations could be requested online or in-person but now will no longer be necessary, said the mayor of Benidorm, Toni Perez, at a press conference via zoom.

The decision was made due to the decrease in visitors in the month of September as the high season has already come to an end and there is a lower influx of vacationers, with more space free on the beaches.

But the city council will keep the capacity limits, control access and enforce the partitioning of the sand as in the previous months when the beaches opened on 15th June.

The prior reservation system also operated throughout the month of August and could be requested through the Benidorm Beach Safety app as well as at the face-to-face reservation spots that were available along the entire Paseo de Levante beach area.

The application cost 265,000 euros  to develop.

Although during the first days there were numerous complaints from some bathers about the difficulty in finding available spaces through the appointment system, the mayor has defended its good operation and the good results it offered.

Mr Perez said that during the summer everyone was given a place on the beach “without the need for long queues or for people having to go home, as has happened in other locations”.

So far this summer, the three beaches in Benidorm have hosted 1.8 million users.

The beaches of Levante have had the highest demand during the hours of sun, not counting those who came only to take a bath without occupying a plot or people who have come to walk on the sand between 7 and 8.45 a.m.

The peak with the highest occupancy was on 15th August when there were a total of 46,610 people throughout the entire day.