Benidorm announces the athletics track and the conversion of the bullring for 2026

Benidorm Mayor Toni Pérez looked back on the year 2025 and used the chance to talk about the city’s goals for the next year. They hope to start the “Open Arena” project this year, which will change the bullring and build an athletics track. He made these statements this Friday at the usual Christmas news conference. He also said that a draft budget for 2026 is already ready.

The Mayor said that the Rincón de Loix health centre will open in the “early stages” of 2026. However, the Regional Ministry of Health’s most recent estimations said that it would open in December of this year. He also said that other projects that have been going on in 2025 will start, such as the Sant Jaume Cemetery’s municipal burial facility and crematorium and the Séquia Mare youth hostel and campsite.

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He also said that the building of the underground parking garage on Avenida Jaime I will not start right away. Instead, it will be postponed until after Christmas 2026 so it doesn’t interfere with the holidays. They also plan to start work on the sports track and the proposed flooded park at Rincón de Loix. The Participatory Budget will pay for the last project, which will cost €625,000.

In addition, they will work on the Benidorm Open Arena project, which calls for a massive refurbishment of the bullring and the region around it. They have gotten a €6.4 million grant under the Edil programme for this, and they are now waiting for confirmation on how the money will be spent. Toni Pérez said that the ministry has not yet finalised the initial grant award, which would cover 60% of the project’s costs. Once it is published, “the project will be put out to tender.”

The city will also start the first phase of infrastructure work on accessible beaches and at the Biblioplaya (Beach Library) over the next 12 months. It will also keep working on projects planned in the Climate Change Action Plan, such as planting trees to offset CO2 emissions and improving actions related to Social Welfare, Equality, Culture, Citizen Security, Urban Planning and Housing, and Citizen Services, among others. The mayor said that this will help promote tourism and the reputation of Benidorm “within and beyond our borders.”

The City Council will “participate in as many calls for proposals as possible,” including the one from the Ministry of Culture for the conservation, restoration, and rehabilitation of historical heritage. This includes a project worth 465,000 euros to install walkways in the Roman “Castellum” of Tossal de La Cala. These walkways will allow the sculpture and other finds at the site to be displayed and made accessible, which will help with the musealisation of this area.

As for Avenida Mediterráneo, the mayor said that money has been set aside to write the project. He also said that he doesn’t plan to raise the property tax (IBI) or the waste collection cost, and that they would be lowered when the time is right. The mayor, who is also the president of the Alicante Provincial Council, said that there were no new developments in the hunt for a place to put the provincial headquarters. This initiative was launched in January 2023, when Carlos Mazón was still president of the Provincial Council. But he did say that the Mediterranean Cultural Centre, which is at the port, will open.

The anniversary of the General Urban Development Plan

The City Council will honour the 1956 General Plan in 2026, which was one of the most important events in the history of Spanish urban planning. It was not only the first document of its kind in the country, but it also set the stage for the city as we know it today, with a promise of vertical growth that still exists today. The mayor said, “It marked the birth and configuration of present-day Benidorm.”

This celebration will also mark the 90th anniversary of the first Local Tourism Board, the 100th anniversary of the Virgin of Suffrage’s coronation and the founding of the Benidorm Musical Union, the 70th anniversary of the “Pact of Benidorm” that brought peace to Colombia, and the 70th anniversary of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes’ honeymoon in our town. “All of these will be celebrated and remembered in their own ways, because they are all important for our city,” he said.

Balance for 2025

Pérez also delivered a short summary of the 2025 results, saying that they had reached their key goals. He talked about the progress on the Water Consortium’s desalination plant project in Poniente, the municipal reclaimed water network, improvements in wastewater treatment, the construction of 117 social housing units for young people in La Cala, the good progress on the completion of the Pere Maria Orts i Bosch high school, the upcoming start of the structural renovation work at the Ausiàs March school, and the opening of the Municipal Social Mediation Centre.

There are also other projects that have come about as a result of the various European-funded Tourism Sustainability in Destination plans. For example, the BeCiTi innovation hub just opened, and there is a bid for the “Benidorm integrates with the PID” project to create a smart destination platform connected to the national PID. This project is also being developed by Segittur and will be based in the city.

Toni Pérez also talked about the rise in Benidorm’s population over the past few years, which was confirmed by the National Institute of Statistics. The new record number of residents is 77,221, which is more than 2,600 more than last year and more than 6,700 more than five years ago. “These numbers show that we are getting closer to our main goal as a city: to be the best place to live and, by extension, the best place to visit. “Nobody leaves their home on purpose to live somewhere worse,” he said, “but to make their situation better.”

He also talked about the 700th Anniversary of the Charter of Settlement, which has been celebrated all year long in 2025, and the European Commission giving the “Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism” award.