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TOURISM

Londoner all woolly inside for B&B alpacas

Londoner Paul Nicholls ploughed snow and erected 3G masts to make his fortune in Sweden, but his favourite furry creatures were never far from mind. He tells The Local about affection-hungry Speedy Gonzales, and the other 25 alpacas at his new bed and breakfast.

Londoner all woolly inside for B&B alpacas

The Brit took the path often travelled when he met a Swedish girl in Thailand back in 1999. Two years later, they moved to Stockholm and he was forced to take any job that was available.

“In England I had my own company and things were going well, but I had to start at the bottom when I moved here,” Nicholls tells The Local whilst ensuring his alpacas are getting their lunch of hay.

“I took a job ploughing snow for the local municipality. After that I worked with Swedish Wireless as a carpenter and things took off for me from there,” he says. Nicholls got into the mobile telecommunications sector at just the right time right when 3G technology was accelerating.

SEE ALSO: A look at past My Swedish Career features

“I must have built thousands of 3G masts and that helped me progress up the ladder where I became a project manager.”

After stints with giants Peab and Bravida, he was ready to take the plunge and start his own company. He established Vertical AB providing rigging solutions for network construction and wind measurement using helicopters.

Nicholls employs 20 people and his company has expanded across the Nordic region. But even when he was up in the air, he was harbouring another dream – starting a bed and breakfast where guests could get close to alpacas.

SEE ALSO: Click here for the latest listings for jobs in Sweden

Alpacas, which look a bit like llamas, are normally found in South America not the snowy wilds of Sweden. Nicholls though wasn’t to be deterred and worked on setting up the resort in his new home of Norrängen in Broddbo, central Sweden.

“I saw a programme on television about alpacas and just became fascinated by them. They are remarkable creatures and it has been proven that spending time with them is good for your health,” Nicholls enthuses.

“Our first three alpacas were adopted from a woman in Stockholm who had them in her garden. Now we are up to 26, and they all have their own personalities. All of ours have names.”

Nicholls fulfilled his dream when he opened Norrängens Alpacka bed and breakfast in May. Business has already been brisk with tourists coming from overseas to get up close and personal with the creatures that are known for their gentle nature.

“We are already booked up until September and our hope is that it will be more than just a seasonal trade,” says Nicholls who is still maintaining his other business interests while taking care of the alpacas.

“People can do as much or as little as they like with the alpacas. They are particularly good around children as they have a very loving personality,” he adds. “In general alpacas don’t want to be stroked but we have one called Speedy Gonzalez who enjoys all the attention from customers.”

SEE ALSO: Sweden’s weirdest hotels

Alpacas, which can be sold for hundreds of thousands of kronor, are best known for their coats, with the fiber used to make luxury blankets and fleeces.

While Nicholls likes getting hands on with his animals, he stops short of shearing them.

“I prefer to leave that to an Australian guy who has plenty of experience with sheep. Just getting them up on the table before they are sheared is enough for me!” he laughed.

Patrick Reilly

Follow Patrick on Twitter here

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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