"Murcia is Spain’s secret treasure,” explains local guide, Ignacio Benedicto, during a walking tour of the historic city that gives the area its name – and it’s a good description as the region is only now realising its true value.
Sandwiched between Valencia to the north and Andalucía to the south, Murcia enjoys 315 days of sun per year, boasts 252 kilometres of coastline and coves, known as the Costa Calida or ‘Warm Coast’, and is home to seven regional parks and a nature reserve.
While it may be a less well-known destination than neighbours Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga, Murica still attracted an estimated five million visitors in 2010, the vast majority of them Spanish tourists and second homeowners, but also almost one million overseas tourists.
In 2008, the region seemed on the cusp of a real tourism boom with the opening of a new privately run international airport aimed at attracting more low-cost carriers (LCC). But then the global economic meltdown struck, leaving these plans in disarray.
Work on the new Región de Murcia International Airport, which promised to increase traffic dramatically, was put on hold as the consortium heading the project struggled to secure funding.
Annual tourism growth fell from 15% in 2007 to just 7% in 2009 as holidaymakers stayed at home or shifted to other markets, and to cap it all, Ryanair, the leading LCC in the region, pulled seven of its nine routes from the region’s main airport San Javier in the summer of 2010.
But Murcia’s prospects are now improving, with the new airport expected to be open by the summer of 2012 and the launch of a new international marketing campaign developed by the Región de Murcia Turística that focuses on the truly unique strengths of the region.
These include a multitude of outdoor activities on offer, from golf, wind surfing, paragliding and mountain biking to cultural, historical, wine and wildlife trips to wellness and city breaks, under the strapline: ‘Murcia; Not Typical’.
“Through ‘Murcia: Not Typical’, what we are trying to show is that Murcia is not what people think. Murcia has always been a place of agriculture, but now everything is changing,” says Manuel Fernández-Delgado, deputy manager, Región de Murcia Turística.
“We are now trying to sell the region to the rest of the world as an all-round destination, and not just a place of sun and beaches. Golf is one of the pillars of our tourism plan, agricultural tourism is getting more popular, while wellness is one of the biggest activities that we are promoting amongst our cultural activities,” adds Delgado.
If the region tried to market itself on its beaches alone, it would lose out to established competitors such as Alicante, Malaga and even those outside Spain, such as Italy and southern France, Delgado believes.
Instead, tourists are being encouraged to practise their putting over 348 holes on 21 golf courses, including several designed by the late Severiano Ballesteros, visit one of 30 water sports centres dotted along the coast for wind surfing, snorkelling and kayaking or, for those brave enough, paraglide off the peaks of the Carrasco y el Valle national park.
A traditionally conservative and deeply religious area with an economy once based on agriculture, Murcia is home to rustic villages, convents and traditional towns and cities, including Lorca, Cartagena and Murcia, which offer a rich historical and cultural charm.
Once the frontier between Christian and Moorish Spain, Murcia is home to the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, an imposing building that boasts arguably the grandest baroque façade in Europe. Other sites include a Jesuit college, shops, several museums and a 19th century casino.
The north-east corner of Murcia has three wine growing areas: Jumilla, Bullas and Yecla, which can be visited for tastings. Budding historians can visit Roman, Punic and Phoenician ruins, including an ancient theatre at Cartagena. Wellness facilities include spas in the Ricote Valley and the ancient thermal waters of Fortuna.
The shallow salty lagoon of the Mar Menor is a Mecca for water sports, bars and restaurants, while further down the coast, areas previously devoted to industrial salt production and mining have been turned into nature reserves where birds, such as the Trumpeter Finch and Audouin’s Gull, draw nature lovers from across Europe.
So what does the aviation landscape currently look like in Murcia? Traffic in the region is currently handled primarily through San Javier International Airport, with the nearby Alicante and Almeria airports handling the rest.
Demand from non-domiciled, second homeowners for flights has led to a dramatic growth of low-cost carrier services, at the expense of charter and full service carriers. In 2009, LCCs represented 66% of all Murcian traffic.
Of these, Ryanair dominates with a 35% slice of traffic among the top 10 operators, followed by easyJet, airberlin and Iberia. Iberia, Air Nostrum and Spanair dominate the domestic market, mainly flights to Madrid and other big cities.
Recent route announcements include a new Ryanair service between Murcia and Manchester, increased services from Leeds by Jet2 and a new service from East Midlands operated by bmi, all beginning in 2012.
In summer 2012, a new alternative to the capacity-constrained Aena-operated San Javier airport will open in the form of Región de Murcia International Airport, a 3mppa capacity gateway being built south-west of the city of Murica.
Built by a private consortium headed by Sacyr Concessiones, which will also operate it under a 40-year lease, the new airport is being designed for LCC use, offering quick turnarounds and fast passenger processing, thanks to nine stands which do not require airbridges, a dedicated Schengen lane and a 300m pier from which no gate is more than five minutes’ walk away.
A greenfield build, the new airport can be easily expanded east and west in order to increase capacity up to 8.7mppa, as demand requires. Incentives such as discounts on airport charges for starting new routes and building traffic and marketing support will also be provided.
While it is as yet unclear whether the regional government will close the existing San Javier Airport once the new airport is operational, Caitríona Beggan,
its business development manager, is confident they can offer airlines significant advantages over San Javier.
“The existing airport in San Javier is a military base that is open to civilian traffic and as a result there will always be restrictions to one degree or another on commercial traffic,” explains Beggan.
“In addition, it is located in a densely populated, highly built-up area, a situation which imposes further restrictions on commercial activity there. As well as being free from these restrictions, Región de Murcia International Airport offers airlines lower charges as important incentives to grow their traffic.
“Therefore, I think it is fair to say that in the medium to long-term, this airport will become the dominant airport for the region,” she declares.
From a low of more than -5% at the height of the global recession in 2008/09, air traffic has recovered to remain static in 2009/10, with expectations that it will increase in coming years.
According to Delgado, the Región de Murcia Turística is working to increase arrivals from Russia and Scandinavia and is in active talks with two of Russia’s biggest tour operators, one of them Natalie Tours, in order to increase capacity from Alicante to Murcia.
Meanwhile, future property developments are also planned on the back of expected demand.
Total beds available in Murcia currently stand at 49,489, with a further 25,000 hotel beds expected to become available over the next few years.
Through the Marina de Cope project, a public-private partnership, some 2,100 hectares of coastline stretching from Lorca to Águilas are to be transformed into hotels, residential properties, retail and sports facilities, and a 2,000-berth marina.
Murcia may still be a secret treasure for many, but airlines and tour operators are now beginning to appreciate the value of this last bit of undiscovered Spain.
