Reus airport may not be the biggest tourist aiport, but it is the main airport serving the Costa Dorada resorts of Salou, Cambrils and La Pineda and also the PortAventura theme park.
The arrival of low cost airline Ryanair to Reus saw a revival of passenger numbers at the airport and has helped these smallish resorts to flourish over the last few year. This year being a particularly difficult year for Spanish tourism has seen the resorts hit pretty hard with numbers down. The poor euro exchange and also the rise in air fares has had its toll.
With the main season lasting from mid May till Mid October, Salou cannot be called an all-year round resort. True it does have mild winters and a good deal of winter sunshine. The PortAventura theme park goes some way to keeping the resorts going with Halloween and Christmas festivities. But in reality the resort of Salou becomes its own special halloween ghost town, when almost everything shuts up shop till next year. On a busy year some establishments may push their season a little longer but on a poor year, there does seem little point.
This year also sees a great many winter flights from Ryanair dissapear of the schedule, which can only add to the hardship and make sure Salou stays quiet through the winter months.
Should more be done? should the businesses of Salou stay open longer and stretch the season?
Myself I think the out of season time is a great time to explore Salou and the surrounding area, some nice warm sunshine, no crowds, and when you do find somewhere to eat and drink, the quality does seem to be that much better. Whether Salou should be an all-year round resort I think will lay with what can it offer, and in reality it can offer quite a lot.
Posts
