Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
A SPANISH resort that once promised to be the ultimate holiday destination – complete with three golf courses, an artificial ski slope and beaches filled with imported Caribbean sand – has been given a new lease of life.
Marina d’Or in Oropesa del Mar, Castellón, was the stuff of holiday dreams when construction began in 2000.
Developers built over 12,000 apartments during a seven-year period in what was destined to become Spain’s most ambitious holiday complex.
The vision for the resort was big: along with the planned ski and golf facilities, it would include themed areas inspired from countries all over the world.
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Today, it is a ghost town of empty streets, shuttered businesses and a general sense that residents had simply ‘left everything behind’.
The dreams of entrepreneur Jesús Ger, the mastermind behind the project, began to unravel almost as quickly as they had been built.
The most ambitious environmental permits never materialised. And then 2008 came.
The global financial crises hit Spain’s real estate market hard, and Marina d’Or wasn’t an exception.
The property values fell, many homeowners were unable to pay their mortgages, and hundreds of apartments remained unsold.
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Ger’s company declared bankruptcy by 2014.
Four years later, the five hotels, local attractions and more than 250 shops and apartments were handed over to investment fund Farallón. The signs were all there.
Marina d’Or closed its doors on September 17, 2023.
What followed was perhaps the most unexpected chapter in the resort’s troubled history – it became a viral sensation on TikTok, but not for the reasons its original developers would have hoped.
Videos shared by Brazilian Family under the Account Explorando Juntos Showed the unsettling reality of the abandoned complex as it appeared in February 2024.
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The video struck a cord with viewers and turned Marina d’Or in an unlikely Internet phenomenon.
The story takes a turn. Marina d’Or, which was a symbol for Spain’s post-bubble property boom, had been resurrected by new owners.
Magic World Resort opened its first doors this summer. The complex, now owned by Grupo Fuertes, (the company that makes ElPozo food), and the hotel group Magic Costa Blanca has been rebranded.
The new management has pumped €40 million into renovations and has set its sights firmly on the British market.
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EasyJet Holidays, an online travel agent and On The Beach Holidays have struck deals to bring back package tourists to the region’s largest hotel complex.
The Magic Natura Resort in Benidorm is a great example of the group’s success.
Tour operators from Iceland and other countries, including Italy, Poland, Portugal as well as Latvia and Sweden, have expressed interest.
The complex manages now five hotels, with over 1,200 rooms. It also includes two hotels in the nearby city of Villarreal and 150 tourist apartments.
Magic World Resort’s ability to restore the lustre Marina d’Or promised will remain to be seen. But after years in the wilderness – and a brief stint as TikTok’s favourite ghost town – this corner of the Spanish coast is ready for tourists once again.
Travel News by The Olive Press.
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