It may be the world crisis, or it may be the fear to encounter a terrorist attack far away from home, but apparently the European tourists tend to prefer staying within European borders lately.
On the other hand, climate change has discovered new places to go on vacations as it is the north of Spain, historically related to cold and rainy summers. All this might be true but there is something else:
San Sebastian has prepared for years to house more tourists, but its also the cultural center (along with Bilbao) of the Atlantic shore of the SW of Europe.
More than 2.9 million tourists visited the Basque country last year, and I bet this year, the 3 million barrier is going to be broken easily.
How do I know? I visited the following web (in spanish):
http://www.orain.eus/euskadi-cerro-2016-record-turistas-al-incrementarse-casi-10/
The fact is that San Sebastian, pearl of the Atlantic, cultural node of great artists, beautiful retiring place for rich whales ;), has broken by 3 years consecutively its own record of tourists.
The photos speak for themselves, as you can see, at 10am in the morning, the beach and surroundings are already full of people walking and relaxing.
All in all it is a wonderful place, full of live, cultural events all through the summer (yes, the Jazz festival is there, and also the famous San Sebastian International Film Festival as well), and lets not forget the cuisine (oh yeah I shall do a post just on that), and the warmth of the inhabitants.
This is going to be a nice summer indeed.
(I am the owner of every photo in this post)
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@jupiter5