Spain cracks down on Airbnb operations

Spain has imposed a major clampdown on Airbnb short-term rental properties, ordering the removal of over 65,000 listings from the platform.

The government action comes after months of anger over a housing affordability crisis in major cities including Barcelona, news portal Travel Mole reports.

The Spanish Consumer Rights Ministry said many listings have violated record-keeping rules, citing discrepancies such as missing licence numbers and owner declarations.

Spaniards have increasingly blamed short-term rentals on housing shortages and surging rental costs.

Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy said the clampdown will address the general ‘lack of control and illegality’ in the holiday let market.

“No more excuses," he said. "Enough with protecting those who make a business out of the right to housing in our country." 

The move is mostly targeting what it calls "illegal listings" in Madrid, Barcelona and parts of Andalusia.

Airbnb is appealing the action and has filed a court motion.

Official data shows there are more than 320,000 licensed rental properties in Spain, but officials say there are many more operating illegally.

The Consumer Rights Ministry first opened an investigation into Airbnb late last year.

The housing shortage crisis has been at the centre of anti-mass tourism protests across Spain in the past year.

Barcelona has already taken measures to alleviate the problem, with plans to remove around 10,000 licensed short-term rental apartments within the next three years.

Image: Andre Oprea, Scop.io 

Major changes for the Australian wine industry

It has been a week of big changes in the Australian wine industry with the families behind Wirra Wirra and Ashton Hills acquiring star Adelaide Hills producer Hahndorf Hill, and Australian Wine Holdco Limited - a group of international investors - announcing the creation of Vinarchy, a new global wine company.

Vinarchy combines Accolade Wines and its multiple brands with the Australian, New Zealand and Spanish wine businesses formerly owned by Pernod Ricard. The new business is one of the largest wine companies in the world.

As reported first by Wine Business Monthly, the acquisition of Austrian varietals specialist Hahndorf Hill adds depth to the Wirra Wirra group’s presence in the Adelaide Hills,

Founded in 2002 by former Mulderbosch vigneron Larry Jacobs and Marc Dobson, Hahndorf Hill has built a loyal following for its wines, including being regarded as the leading Australian producer of Austrian white varietal gruner veltliner.

The six-hectare estate, just outside the historic village of Hahndorf, also features a popular cellar door and thriving wine tourism experience.

“At a time when the Australian wine industry is facing real challenges, we’re choosing to invest in quality, authenticity and long-term growth,” said Matthew Deller MW, CEO of Wirra Wirra.

“Larry and Marc have created something truly special. Hahndorf Hill fits perfectly with our vision for the future.”

Jacobs and Dobson will retire from the wine industry following the transition.

“Marc and I are thrilled that Wirra Wirra will be taking over the reins,” said Jacobs. “The Wirra Wirra team has all the skills and enthusiasm to take Hahndorf Hill to the next level.”

The Hahndorf Hill portfolio includes four expressions of grüner veltliner, and a range that includes blaufränkisch, St Laurent, and zweigelt. Hahndorf Hill wines are distributed nationally by Domaine Wine Shippers.

Vinarchy, meanwhile, will feature a large number of leading wine brands, ranging from Berri Estates, Hardy's, Jacob's Creek, Petaluma, Grant Burge, St Hallett, St Hugo and Orlando to New Zealand brands Stoneleigh, Brancott Estate, Church Road and Mud House.

It also includes Campo Viejo – the best selling Rioja brand, Ysios and Tarsus.

Helen McCarthy, from St Hallett, has been named to the new position as director of global winemaking at Vinarchy. 

Vinarchy is led by executive chairman Ben Clarke, who held a similar role at Accolade Wines. 

“We believe Vinarchy can lead the future of the wine category," Clarke said. "We will be a dedicated wine company, with scale, capability, reach, resources, talent, and an exceptional portfolio of leading brands. We want to redefine wine.

“The global wine industry faces serious structural challenges. Global wine consumption has been

declining for years, driven by changing consumer preferences and a shift to lower-alcohol drinks.

"Vinarchy will be bold and imaginative in meeting these challenges. With our enhanced scale, brand

investment program, innovation capability and industry-leading talent, we believe can meet many of

the challenges that the industry faces."

WBM reports the name Vinarchy combines Vin (the French word for wine), with Archy (from the Ancient Greek word for leadership). Together it means wine leadership.

Image: Matthew Deller, Larry Jacobs and Marc Dobson at Hahndorf Hill 

Spain showcasing its sustainability credentials

Spain is making significant strides in promoting sustainable tourism in a bid to ensure year-round visitation and promote lesser-known regions. 

New cycling paths, electric buses and high-speed train routes are making eco-friendly travel across the country more accessible, and hotel initiatives are revitalising rural regions, contributing to Spain's sustainable tourism movement.

Turespana's Tourism Counsellor for South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Marta Fernandez Martin, says Spain's commitment to sustainable tourism not only enhances the visitor experience but also ensures the preservation of its natural and cultural heritage for future generations.

“We are absolutely committed to leading the way in sustainable tourism,' said Fernandez Martin. “Spain is dedicated and making great progress to making eco-friendly travel both accessible and enjoyable, reflecting our country's deep respect for the environment and our duty to protect it.

“As the country's national tourism board, we're proactively promoting shoulder-season and off-season travel options to Australian and New Zealand travellers, as well as encouraging greater regional dispersal and off-the-beaten-path discoveries.

"This approach is designed not only to help manage tourism's impact on the environment and local communities within Spain, but also to spread the economic benefit of tourism further.”

Valencia has been named as the European Green Capital for 2024, while the European Capital of Smart Tourism for 2024 is Seville. 

Spain continues to innovate in sustainable travel by expanding its Vias Verdes (Green Ways) project, which repurposes old railway lines into non-motorised paths for hiking and cycling. 

With over 117 routes spanning more than 2,900 kilometres, nature enthusiasts have opportunities to explore the country's landscapes.

A remarkable 90% of Spanish trains are powered by renewable electricity, substantially reducing the carbon footprint and a new high-speed line between Madrid and Oviedo launched in November last year. 

For more information on sustainable Spain and conscious travel options see www.spain.info/en/.

Image: Seville. Supplied.

 

Walking and eating: an insider look at undiscovered Spain

A couple of decades ago Ben Groundwater and I worked together on the sub-editing desk at a major metropolitan newspaper.

That was in the day when newspapers cared about facts, grammar, accuracy and honesty.

Our job was to turn some appalling drivel into stories that could grace the pages of the paper.

Ben, however, had serious wanderlust and over the past 20 years he has become known as one of Australia's best travel writers - with a serious focus on food.

He's also a tour guide, who has led successful epicurean tours with World Expeditions, including two sold out food trips to San Sebastian and an almost fully booked Japan food tour.

Now he is hosting ‘Picos and Pintxos’, a tour of the Asturias and Basque regions of Northern Spain, in May 2025.

If you fancy sampling the region’s fine wine, cheese and seafood you can combine it with three guided coastal walks, including the Camino del Norte, and three days guided hiking in the Picos de Europa mountain range.

Ben knows his stuff, having lived with his family in San Sebastian.

“I am so excited to share the Basque culinary experiences that were most memorable during my time living in this unique area, along with the beauty of what I consider to be Europe’s most underrated region, Asturias," he says.

“The wilderness we will be hiking through is some of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen, the food in both Asturias and the Basque Country is incredibly good, and each night we will be sleeping in hotels and boutique guesthouses that ooze charm and character.”

This trip will incorporate Ben’s favourite parts of his sell-out San Sebastian tour with World Expeditions, including the market tour, wine tasting and a pintxos tour through San Sebastian's Old Town. 

New elements include a Michelin-starred dining experience at Ayalga in Ribadesella, a guided tour of the Guggenheim museum, and two walks on the ancient pilgrimage path, the Camino del Norte, part of the Camino de Santiago.

This ‘foodie’ trip is not suitable for Vegans or vegetarians, as substitutes at some places are simply not possible.

The tour runs from May 21-June 1 and will cost $6590 per person twin share.

See www.worldexpeditions.com 

Polar opposites. Travel from the inside looking out

Enjoy travelling vicariously with some quirky companions?  

How about a journey from New Zealand to Spain undertaken almost entirely by train? 

Meet amusingly eccentric French horn player Gregory Hill and his German violinist wife Anne. 

Gregory somehow came up with the idea of travelling from one point on the globe - his home in Wellington - to its exact upside, or antipodes, which turns out to be somewhere between near Salamanca in Spain. 

He remembers doing a similar exercise with an old school atlas. Now he decides to try it real life, which turns into a 38,000 kilometre trip in 78 days, with 31,000 of those kilometres covered by rail. 

On the right tracks, so to speak. The trip from Saigon to Spain was conducted entirely on steel tracks. 

So 33 trains, 19 countries and a whole lot of interesting, sometimes amusing, encounters, fortunately completed before Covid made a trip of this nature impossible.

The trip takes us from New Zealand’s Northern Explorer to the Eurostar and a wide range of trains with stops Xi'an and a hilarious experience with Chinese bureaucracy, and possible drug dealers in Siberia.

Well illustrated with maps and photos, this is a fun armchair journey with Gregory and Anne with musical interludes including the Bolshoi Ballet and the Paris Opera. 

The Antipodean Express is published today in Australia by Exisle Publishing. $44.99. 
https://exislepublishing.com/product/the-antipodean-express/ 

Every winery's nightmare as intruder opens storage vats

It is a nightmare scenario for any wine producer.

An intruder - maybe a random nutter - breaks into a winery at night and opens up several tanks in which juice is being stored.

It happened last weekend at the Bodega Cepa 21 winery in the Ribera del Duero region of Spain with thousands of litres of wine with an estimated value exceeding €2m on the ground.

Police from the country’s Guardia Civil were investigating the attack at the winery, outside Valladolid, Decanter.com reported.

CCTV footage that apparently shows the incident has been shared widely by Spanish media and shows a hooded person moving quickly between vats in the cellar and opening them up.

Liquid can be seen spraying out of one vat, in the below YouTube video uploaded by the El Mundo media outlet.

Among the wine lost to the sabotage was around 20,000 litres destined to be bottles of Cepa 21’s high-end Horcajo label, El Pais newspaper quoted winery owner José Moro as saying.

A Cepa 21 representative told BBC News that the saboteur appeared to be familiar with winemaking equipment in general, noting that it took relatively little time to open up the tanks in the cellar.

So many lessons to be learned about wine tourism

Wine Tourism is a boom industry around the globe. 

South Africa, Argentina and the US are among the nations leading the way, while many Australian operators still lag behind. 

UN World Tourism Organisation will hold a global conference on wine tourism in La Rioja, Spain, from November 22-24. I wonder how many Australian operators will be in attendance? 

The event will feature diverse industry players around data, governance, innovation, sustainability, and skills and is being co-organised by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Government of La Rioja and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain. 

The focus will be on the pivotal role of this sector in promoting rural development, sustainable practices, and regional regeneration against the backdrop of a landscape where tradition converges with technology. 

The conference will aim to shine a light on the seamless integration of wine tourism with the evolving preferences of tourists. 

The program will address innovative digital tools and the exploration of new strategies to amplify outreach via social media platforms, reaching larger audiences and increasing visitor flow. 

A lot to learn here for operators who find it too difficult to re-Tweet, or re-post on Facebook. 

The conference will also underscore the importance of identifying and fostering skills development to enhance expertise, knowledge, and service quality, as a precursor to crafting a vibrant, sustainable, and inclusive wine tourism industry. 

Also under the microscope: how data can play a significant role in shaping wine tourism. 

Attendees will explore the mapping of existing metrics and methodologies to quantify wine tourism to create common frameworks. 

Nurturing sustainability and rural development for the future will also be discussed, while destination managers and experts will showcase sustainable practices that embrace the principles of the circular economy. 

There will also be sessions that will explore the fusion of wine with gastronomy, art and culture, its synergies with communication, branding, technology, events, and sustainability. 

See https://www.unwto.org/

Train journeys free - until the end of the year

Locals and visitors to Spain can now benefit from free train travel on many short- and medium-length journeys until the end of the year.

Rail passengers are being offered complimentary journeys on various routes run by state-owned operator Renfe as part of the Spanish Government’s plans to reduce the cost of living.

The move follows a similar plan in Germany, where rail fares returned to normal on Thursday after a three-month experiment with €9 tickets for a month’s unlimited travel on local and regional public transport networks.

But because this is Spain, the plan is convoluted.

Passengers must obtain a rail pass via Renfe’s app or at a railway station. They must then nominate a destination and pay a deposit of €10 for suburban lines and €20 for middle-distance journeys, after which a QR code on the app will serve as their ticket.

The deposit will be refunded at the end of the year if the ticket holder has travelled at least 16 times to the specified destination.

The ticket applies to all destinations in the same zone as the specified station. In the case of Madrid or Barcelona, for example, it means free travel within a radius of about 50km of the city.

Visitors to Spain can sign up using their passport number, and for those using a city as a base to explore the surrounding area there are significant benefits. For example, a return ticket from Madrid to nearby Aranjuez costs €12.50, and to El Escorial, €8.10. Even if they forfeiting the €10 deposit, they have already saved money.

Also, metro fares in Barcelona have been cut by up to 50% until December 31.

Catch the train - for free

One of the great pleasures of a recent trip to Europe was the quality of the trains services.

I caught several trains in Italy - across both commuter and long-distance routes - and the trains were on time, clean and efficient. And cheap.

At peak times they were close to being over-subscribed, but the quality of the service puts Australian trains to shame.

Australians, of course, always prefer to drive. Sad.

Spain - another country with an efficient train service - has announced it will soon make some short- and medium-length train journeys completely free.

The move comes into effect on September 1, allowing free rides on certain routes run by state-owned operator Renfe.

The free rides will be on regional lines for journeys of fewer than 300km, and on commuter lines.

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez said it is a response to help alleviate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, Travel Mole reported.

Spain has also reduced fares on other state-owned public transport by half.

Balearics put the brakes on boozy Brits

Spanish authorities have had enough of drunk and disorderly British tourists. 

Brits visiting Majorca and the other Balearic islands this summer will find it a lot harder to get legless than it was before. 

New rules have been put in place by regional governments in a bid to address the "issues of over-consumption of alcohol".

So booze cruises and organised pub crawls are out - and there will be limits on alcohol sales. 

Restaurants and bars that serve food are also limited in how much alcohol they can serve, in addition to all-inclusive resorts. The new rules state the maximum per lunch or dinner is three alcoholic beverages. 

The clampdown applies to tourists hotspots like Magaluf and El Arenal as well as party central Ibiza.

The regional government said that the laws would “force a real change in the tourism model of those destinations”.

Under the new legislation, happy hours and two-for-one drinks will also be banned.

The rules also ban the sale of alcohol in shops between 9.30pm and 8am, and forbids the advertising of party boats in designated areas.

Balearic Islands Tourism minister Iago Negueruela said: “We want British tourists but we don't want this type of tourism.

“We share with the British Government the view that some images of British tourists are embarrassing. 

"We want to put a stop to bad behaviour. We will have zero tolerance for tourism excesses.”

British travel agents body ABTA has said it "strongly supports” the changes. 

Establishments that don’t follow the rules will face hefty fines, according to the legislation. The government texts outlines fines of between €1,000 and €600,000, plus the possibility of shutting down offending establishments for up to three years.

The world's biggest wine producer may surprise you

Which country produces the most wine? 

Many people would guess France, but the French actually trail in third place behind Italy and Spain, the latest figures released by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). 

Overall world wine production in 2021 is expected to be 4% lower than in 2020, based on a report using information collected from 28 wine producing countries. 

In the European Union alone, "due to the late spring frost and generally unfavourable weather conditions," says the OIV production down 13% on 2020. 

Some countries defied the trend with Portugal (6.5 million hectolitres +1%), Romania (5.3 million hectolitres +37%), Hungary (3.1 million hectolitres +4%) and Germany (8.4 million hectolitres +4%) all in growth. 

The world's largest producers are all showing a clear decline. 

Italy (vineyards in the Alto Adige are pictured above) is experiencing a 9% drop in production (44.5 million hectolitres). 

France, second in 2020, produced only 34.2 million hectolitres, a fall of 29% compared to the previous year.  France has "suffered the most from the effects of a disastrous vintage", says the report.

The downturn "France's lowest production volume since 1957" has allowed Spain (35 million hectolitres, or -14%) to take over, by a narrow margin, second place worldwide. 

Italy, Spain and France combined represent 45% of total world production.