09/05/2025

FRIDAY | MAY 9, 2025

22

LYFE

Spain enjoying tourism boom

The Piu Sik parade attracts huge crowds. – AFPPIC

SPAIN welcomed a record 17 million foreign tourists in the first three months of 2025 as the buoyant sector drives an economy outshining European peers, official data showed on Monday. The 17.1 million foreign tourists arriving in the country from January to March was a 5.7% increase on the same period in 2024, Spain’s National Statistics Institute said. Britain, France and Germany supplied the most holidaymakers to the world’s second most-visited country, which last year hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists seeking its sun, beaches and culture. Spending by foreign tourists also climbed 7.2% to €23.5 billion (RM113.2 billion), the tourism ministry said in a statement, a welcome development for the government which wants visitors to splash more cash during their stay. The tourist sector was one of the drivers of Spain’s standout growth of 3.2% in 2024, well above the EU figure of 1%. But the bonanza has sparked a growing backlash among locals who complain that an unsustainable influx of foreign visitors is driving up rents, saturating infrastructure and changing the fabric of neighbourhoods. Spain aims to “diversify” destinations, make the sector less dependent on key seasons and “share out the benefits” across the country, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said in a statement. – AFP

People take part in a bun scrambling competition during the Bun Festival at Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong. – REUTERSPIC

Hong Kong’s raucous Bun Festival

blockbuster animation, and the legendary Monkey King, Sun Wukong. The five-day Bun Festival is said to date back to the 1800s, when fisherfolk drove away pirates and the plague by parading a statue of Taoist sea deity Pak Tai. “It is my first time to visit the island and this showed me a new Hong Kong, completely different from downtown,” said

K IDS dressed as real and fantasy heroes, drummers pounding a beat and sweet treats offered to powerful gods – thousands of visitors poured onto a small island in Hong Kong for its annual Bun Festival on Monday. Held on the Chinese city’s outlying Cheung Chau, the raucous five-day festival transforms the usually quiet fishing community into an explosion of colour and noise that blends Cantonese traditions with modern culture and draws locals and tourists alike. Monday’s three-hour parade – known as “ Piu Sik ”, meaning floating colours – traditionally saw locals march through town with statues of local gods. These days, local children dress up as both real and imaginary figures, including Olympic fencing champion Cheung Ka Long, Ne Zha from a recent Chinese o Tourists flock to blend of Cantonese traditions, modern culture

from mainland China, keen

to to get a glimpse of traditional get a glimpse of traditional Chinese culture. Chinese students studying in Hong Kong, Gao Yidan and Cheng Qi, said they learnt about the festival on Xiaohongshu, an app similar to Instagram. “The atmosphere of traditional culture is very strong here,” said Gao. Another visitor from China’s southwestern Sichuan province said she appreciated Hong Kong’s celebrations of Buddha’s birthday, which fell on Monday. “We love the crowded atmosphere here, even though today is very hot,” said Huang Dan, a 42-year-old housewife. – AFP

Cedric Linet, a 49-year-old French banker. The buns represent good fortune, holding sweet bean paste in a crumbly pastry marked with Chinese characters for “peace” and “safety”. Crowds queued all day to get hold of the buns, used to make offerings to traditional deities and sacrifices to the souls of the dead. The climax of the festival comes at midnight, when contestants climb a 14m-high tower covered in buns – hoping to be crowned “King of Kings” or “Queen of Queens”. Among those gathered were tourists

Spain aims to ‘diversify’ tourist destinations and make the sector less dependent on key seasons. – PEXELSPIC

France honours first Concorde jet as monument

THE first Concorde supersonic passenger aircraft has been named as a historical monument, France’s culture minister said Monday. Concorde 001, which was the first of the 20 aircraft built and the first to take to the skies in a test flight in 1969, is now housed in the Aeroscopia museum outside of the southern French city of Toulouse. “This plane embodies France’s innovation and industrial strength in the aviation sector,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati said in a statement on X announcing

supersonic flight, remains in our memories,” said Dati. The plane, which was developed by French and British firms that became part of Airbus and BAE Systems, was operated by Air France and British Airways. “Its preservation will provide future generations an example of our aeronautical expertise and futuristic vision.” The French culture ministry said 18 of the 20 Concordes have been preserved, including six located in France. – AFP

the designation. The Concorde entered into commercial service in 1976 and to date is the world’s only supersonic passenger plane, travelling faster than sound at speeds that whisked an elite class of travellers between London or Paris and the US east coast in just over three hours. The service was definitively retired in October 2003, three years after a devastating crash outside Paris that killed 113 people. “This plane, a pioneer in

To date, the Concorde remains the world’s only supersonic passenger plane. – AFPPIC