Dear Reader

BENIDORM is a resort of two halves. There’s the northern strip where lads on tour swagger along the boardwalk, just about avoiding the mobility scooters carrying British OAPs and stopping occasionally at shops which promise: ‘We sell British food’.

And, then, there’s the southern sweep of beach on the other side of the Balco de la Mediterrania, with its highrise apartment buildings and children’s play areas, where the football shirts are less invasive.

‘We’re the New York of the Med,’ said a man from an electric bike rental company. Which didn’t sound especially inviting. But it’s certainly the case that there are more skyscrapers in Benidorm (pictured) per square foot than anywhere in the world apart from the Big Apple.

I was there this week for the annual conference of the Advantage Travel Partnership, which represents some 350 independent travel agents.

One overriding concern was that the travel industry needs to speak with a united voice. Outbound travel is worth in excess of £80 billion but the Government doesn’t appear to value it highly. In the pandemic, the emphasis was on saving airlines and airports, not supporting travel agents or tour operators.

‘I’d find it hard not to slap Grant Shapps [former Transport Secretary] if I ever come across him,’ one delegate told me.

No one had much admiration for ABTA — the bigger and betterknown body representing travel firms — either. ‘The so-called “guardian” of our industry was a shambles throughout lockdown. It seemed more keen to make sure our subscriptions rolled in than lobbying the Government,’ said a High Street agent based in the North West.

The good news is that almost everyone I spoke to was upbeat about the future of the sector. It made me think the Moorish proverb was right with its assertion that ‘he who does not travel does not know the value of men’.