Politicians, wherever they be, keep telling us the recession has bottomed out, is over or that things are getting better. Not that many, if any, politicians anywhere have really been affected by the global economic crisis.
So why is it that all one ever seems to hear about, still, are businesses going under or people losing their jobs?
Meanwhile, the Italian restaurant Napule in Plaza Marina, has found itself unable to continue, certainly in its current location and format. They tried all sorts of promotions, such as ‘3 x 2’ pizzas and ‘eat as much as you can’, but seemingly all to no avail. Shame.
The Andalucia Soap Company on calle El Barrio is currently offering 25% reductions in a closing down sale. They haven’t been there all that long really.
All over Nerja, places are ceasing trading on a regular basis. Some are being replaced by new enterprises, but not all.
It’s the same everywhere. I was in La Herradura this morning and noticed that several places had fallen by the wayside in the six weeks since I was last there.
And there is all this talk of golf courses and marinas as being the salvation of the town. They may well benefit municipal coffers – fees, sale of land, taxes etc etc – but will it help the town itself?
I was also in Marinas del Este today and currently pay regular visits, about every month or six weeks.
It is a very nice marina, it has to be said, and is always full of boats of all shapes and sizes. One noticable thing, however, is the apparent lack of people. There’s hardly anyone ever milling around and rarely anyone actually on the boats themselves.
Today, there were hundreds of boats all neatly moored. There was one guy in a rowing boat (moored) carrying out some sort of maintenance, two workmen fitting new glass doors to a cruiser and one couple sitting on the deck of their boat.
The marina has a huge number of ‘locales’, on two floors actually, but most of the ground floor premises are empty or have never been inhabited and none of the first floor ones has ever been in operation. As with everywhere else, businesses have been coming and going on a regular basis, although arriving more slowly than in other places.
The owner of the one small supermarket/mini market has about had enough and as for the restaurants, the summer has been ‘OK’. If you take into account the natural inclination to exaggerate, at least slightly, it is not a thriving area. Or at least is not thriving these days. It was probably a different scenario in days gone by. Maybe. The ones who are ‘surviving’ are the ones who actually own their business/premises, rather than renting.
One gets the impression that the majority of people just park their boat and visit it maybe once or twice a year for a ‘getaway’. Of the remainder, many will just live on the boat for the duration of their stay, hardly venturing out.
This is just the impression one gets. It may be a false impression, who knows, but it doesn’t look like an enterprise destined to be the salvation of a town.