The Mayor of Torrevieja opened the town´s satellite Town Hall in La mata last week.

The building is almost 2000 square metres and will house 22 members of staff..It has cost almost 4 million euros to build.

The idea of building this town hall has been in place since 2005 and has been made a reality by the funding from central government,their Plan E investment grant to all towns throughout the country.

The building is three storeys high and includes a basement and an attic.There are of course a variety of offices,meeting rooms and of course a council chamber.It will also house La Mata Tourist Office.

La Mata residents will no longer have to travel to Torrevieja to carry out all of their administrative tasks from now on.All documentation will be available at the new town hall.

There will be another satellite town hall in the ols Semana Santa Museum.This will happen once the new Semana Santa building has been completed.

In June there was a total of 5.3 million tourists in Spain.This number of Spanish tourists was up by 1.7% on the same month of last year.

These statistics were produced by the Frontier Tourist Movement Survey ( FRONTUR) and drafted by the Tourism Studies Institute of the Ministry of Industry,Tourism and Trade.

This is the second consecutive increase in the number of tourists arriving in Spain.There was an increase of 1.1% in May.

In the first 6 months of 2010 approximately 23 million tourists visited the country and this was 1.8% fewer than in 2009.It is thought that this figure reflects the effects of the volcanic ash cloud.

In June there were more positive trends from countries such as Germany,France ,Italy and Holland.People coming from even further afield also increased.

All of the major tourist destinations registered an increase in June and those that didn´t only saw a slight decline.

Tourists staying in hotels in June accounted for 68% of the total with an increase of almost 10% at the same time last year.

Murcia,San Javier airport will be devoid of yet another airline this winter.Air berlin has followed Ryanair in deciding that because of a lack of help from the Murcia government they will be suspending international connections with the airport from the summer of 2011.

Air Berlin has operated from Murcia Aiorport for 4 years and will be keeping its direct flight between San Javier  and Palma de Mallorca from November 1st until April 11 2011.It is expected to continue operating next winter´sconnections to 16 cities in Germany as well as Innsbruck and Linz in Austria and Basel in Switzerland.

A spokesperson for Air Berlin has said that the stance taken by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is incomprehensible and that the government in Murcia obviously could not see the importance of these air links.

Last week it was Ryanair that cancelled flights from San Javier to British airports and for very similar reasons.

Last week the Catalan parliament made a decision to ban bullfighting across Catalonia.

There were 68 votes in favour of the ban and 55 against with 9 abstentions.The new law will come into effect from January 1st 2012.

A group which calls itself the People´s Legislative Initiative collected almost 200,000 signatures from the general public.These people wanted bullfighting to be banned.It was because of these signatures that the topic was brought to a vote.

The Partido popular all voted against the ban and they are now working to get this new law annulled by the Madrid Congress.

Statistics show that fewer people in Spain are watching bullfighting.Lat year almost 11,000 animals were slaughtered in the name of fun and enjoyment.

The fact that this is a first step for Spain is a wonderful indication of a country which is growing in maturity.

Terra Mitica is a theme park just outside Benidorm.It is a very good theme park as theme parks go but in the present economic climate it is extremely expensive for families to partake of its pleasures.The park has been struggling for a number of years and now it is to be rented.

Aqualandia which is another theme park nearby,which as its name suggests is a water park and a very successful one too.Now it is going to rent Terra Mitica for 1.8 million euros annually.

Terra Mitica was the brainchild of a former President of the Valencia Community.He had the idea for it in the 90´s.Since its inception it has never been as popular as Disney World in Paris and has had fewer visitors.It was facing bancruptcy.The interest on the loans alone is 1.8 million euros annually  and Aqualandia has signed a lease for 10 years.There is also an option in the deal to eventually buy the theme park.