No takers for lighthouse hotels

NO business concern has yet shown interest in turning one of Almeria Province’s 10 lighthouses into a hotel.
The central government announced in 2013 that it planned to lease out the empty premises that in pre-digital days would have been occupied by the lighthouse keeper and his family.
Only around 60 of Spain’s 387 lighthouses are occupied and the Minister of Public Works Ana Pastor announced two years ago that the remainder could be put to more profitable use.
Around 20 serious enquiries are being handled at the moment, according to government sources which stressed that these are still at an initial stage.
Lightouses in Trafagar (Cadiz), Tabarca and San Antonio (Alicante) and El Pescador (Santander) are first in line to be transformed into boutique hotels. But Almeria is not about to follow suit, revealed Andres Garcia Lorca, the central government’s sub-delegate to Almeria, although three uninhabited lighthouses are now cultural centres.
Mario Sanz, the Mesa Roldan lighthouse keeper, doubted that the initiative would have much success in Almeria. “Few could be turned into hotels because there is only the tower and no space for rooms,” he pointed out.