Spain 2013: a year in review

Will 2014 bring as much positivity to Spain as 2013 has?

It’s that time of year again when thoughts turn to what the next 12 months will hold. But it’s also a time to glance forlornly at the dog-eared Christmas tree and extra inches around your waist, to fret about whether the January sales really are worth the effort when it’s raining outside and that film you’ve been meaning to catch is on the box at 11am, and to start asking friends what they’re doing for New Year in the vague hope that they’re hosting a gathering, “nothing too big” and “would you like to come?”

And yes, it’s also the time of year to recap on the past 12 months; to look back at the highs and the lows – an especially rewarding ritual should 2013 have been a good year for you…

This time last year, the VIVA blog looked ahead excitedly at what 2013 might hold, preferring to focus on the promise of something better after a challenging 12 months in 2012.

This year it is a different story. 2013 was the year in which Spain definitely turned a corner: the economy evoked your spirit of Boxing Day morning and dragged itself through despite the stinging hangover of recession trying its hardest to yank it back into hibernation. The property market shuffled away from the bottom to enjoy price stabilisation and even some price rises, and consumer confidence came trickling back, particularly in the fourth quarter of the year.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

January
2013 began with the encouraging news that the Spanish government was set to entice wealthy non-EU investors with the offer of issuing a residency permit for property buyers who invested more than €160,000 in property. That threshold was later raised to €500,000, but this was a solid statement of intent with which to begin the year: a prophetic signal that seemed to suggest 2013 would be the year in which the government finally took some decisive action.

February
As the month of love hoved into view and that famously long and blustery British winter drove many Brits to hunt for “last minute winter sun deals” on that there internet, UK newspaper the Daily Mirror ran a rather gushing double-page splash on Málaga, the capital of the Costa del Sol. It was a great piece, and they were spot-on about the city’s charm and beguiling, captivating character. It was also a timely reminder to Britons and the British media that there was more to Spain than cheap and cheerful coastal resorts.

March
Those with long memories or a particularly pessimistic disposition may remember that winter in Northern Europe seemed never-ending this year. Come late March – when usually even Scots are starting to possibly dare to maybe hope that the mercury will reach double figures and the rain will finally subside – the British Isles were still being buffeted by snow and howling winds. I cracked. As a former resident of the Costa del Sol I knew that by now I would have at least braved a beach bar, if not the Med itself. So I penned paean to everything brilliant about Spain, while deriding the UK’s straightened, orderly and rather chilly way of life. It may not have been my proudest moment, but it was cathartic at least.

April
A quarter of the way into 2013, official figures were released confirming something that many Brits could have told you anecdotally: young, educated Spaniards were leaving the country in their droves. The great Spain Brain Drain has been one of the abiding tales of 2013, with more than 300,000 youngsters heading overseas in search of work. That trend is far from being reversed even now, but at least Spain now offers a semblance of hope for a brighter future – something that thousands of young Spaniards evidently didn’t believe earlier this year.

May
By May, Spain’s property market was experiencing modest price rises in its more robust regions, the economy was beginning to tick along nicely thanks to the country’s growing export sector, and the promise of summer around the corner meant unemployment was beginning to fall as many of Spain’s businesses geared up for what was to become a record summer season. Which is why it felt like a good time to suggest three additional ways to help Spain really regain its mojo. The ideas were simple: embrace modern technology, go on a charm offensive, and promote health tourism. The unseemly Gibraltar scuffles aside, these suggestions weren’t too far off what actually happened next…

June
There were plenty of good news stories for Spain in June, but the one that stuck out most was the news that the International Monetary Fund announced that Spain’s economy was “making good progress.” Yes, in terms of head-turning headlines it is up there with “Cat gets stuck up tree”, but it signalled the start of a series of good news stories that characterised the second half of 2013. Looking back, June appears to have been the month in which hope turned to actual concrete improvement and progress for Spain’s economy.

July
Back in Blighty, July saw Brits basking in heat and sunshine usually reserved for their Mediterranean cousins. Beaches were packed, ice cream salesmen were jubilant, motorway traffic jams reached record lengths and police forces across the country were overworked dealing with over-inebriated, over-fed and over-tanned Brits out ‘enjoying’ the sun. Oh how the Spanish police must have laughed. And yet… Spain remained the most popular tourist destination for Brits last summer, enjoying better weather (even though there were days when London pushed southern Spain close) and that sultry mix of Med, mountains, beaches and more beach bars than you can shake a mojito at.

August
And then it all kicked off. As the mercury pushed past 40ºC, tensions between Spain and Gibraltar reached boiling point. Border checks tightened, queues lengthened, spats widened and mainstream media in both Spain and the UK saw this as the perfect opportunity to dig into the dusty vault of clichés marked ‘lazy and offensive’. While tempers died down towards the end of August, the issue has simmered on all year, with intermittent skirmishes and cat-calls sparking up every week or so.

September
By September, tourism statistics for the months of June, July and August were in. What they revealed was startling: each month enjoyed a record-breaking year for visitor numbers in 2013. Buoyed by low prices for hotels and flights, spurred on by beautiful weather and undeterred by the ongoing economic crisis still haunting much of Europe, visitors from the EU flocked to Spain in their droves last summer – with August drawing more than 8.3 million foreign visitors alone.

October
The first week of October on the Costa del Sol can often go one of two ways. It can surprise you by turning slightly cooler than you’ve become accustomed to over the past four months, or it can surprise you by staying lovely and warm, with bright blue skies complemented by the fact that many of the tourists have gone home, leaving you free to enjoy the area’s many attractions in relative peace. Which is why we chose the first week of October to publish our How to enjoy Autumn on the Coast guide, in just five easy steps.

November
Towards the tail-end of November, like clockwork, the peaks of the Sierra Nevada enjoy a heavy blanket of snow, prompting thousands of ski enthusiasts to descend on the region to enjoy a weekend on the slopes. But one particular weekend in late November saw an even greater spectacle unfolding – that of the hooded mountain peak, aka a Cap Cloud, hovering ephemerally above Veleta peak near Granada. So striking was the visage that it was featured in NASA’s astronomy image of the day… and right here on VIVA too, of course!

December
As the year wound to a close and thoughts turned to Christmas, Spain’s news wires – rather than winding down for the festive season – went into overdrive, with story after story extolling the excellent path the country’s economy found itself on. There were positive headlines everywhere, with Spain ending the year on something of a high after an encouraging 12 months.

So, here’s hoping that 2014 brings even greater joy for Spaniards, foreign residents in Spain, and all you others thinking of moving over.

Happy New Year from the team at VIVA!