No – not real dinosaurs! Mijas Town Hall have recently announced that they have been looking at creating a large Jurassic Park tourist attraction somewhere in the area. There was talk about it being at the Mijas Hipodromo, but it now appears that the site will be the ‘Finca El Ahogaero’ on the Camino de Coin road.

The 200,000 square metre park, to be called ‘Jurapark Mijas’, will have workshops, exhibition halls, open air arenas and leisure areas. They have called upon the expertise of several international institutions to make sure the park is as authentic as possible, recreating the different species of dinosaurs.

Investing in the area 

Here is a great example of people having faith in the return of the tourism industry to the Costa del Sol. The council of Mijas are looking to invest some 12 million euros in the project which they think will take around 18/24 months to complete. They anticipate the creation of around 190 jobs both directly with the park and indirectly. It’s great to know that the various authorities are trying to attract the tourists back to the area. 

We’ve all seen the empty bars and restaurants, and I don’t just mean those that have closed down! The owners must be ready to pull their hair out, the continual bad weather this year can’t be helping and they must all be praying for a good summer season.

Let’s hope that they can hold on long enough to benefit from the initiatives talked about in my previous blogs – tourist pathways leading into the mountains from Marbella, the newly improved promenade (or maritimo as John keeps reminding me) in Marbella, the improved chiringuitos in all areas, the improvements being made to the beaches along the coast – and the list goes on.

Keeping the faith

Keeping our heads down and working hard over the next few years may hopefully be rewarded with brighter times ahead. So as Leapy Lee says in his brilliant column ‘Keep the faith’!