Parador

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Parador

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1928
Seat Madrid , Spain
Branch Hotel chain
Website www.parador.es

Paradores de Turismo de España is a Spanish hotel chain . The company and the individual hotel are briefly referred to as Parador [ paɾaˈðor ]. The company is a state-owned joint-stock company. The individual house is usually a comfortable and stylish 3 to 5 star hotel with an often historical structure. Most of the Paradores are located in historically significant places such as Ávila , Cáceres , Córdoba , Cuenca , Granada , León , Mérida , Ronda , Salamanca , Segovia , Santiago de Compostela or Toledo or in an outstanding landscape and often offer a remarkably beautiful view. Parador employs around 4,300 people.

history

origin

The origin of the Paradores concept can be traced back to 1910, when the government commissioned the Marqués de la Vega Inclán to realize the project of a hotel organization. The idea at the time was to offer hikers accommodation with host families and to improve Spain's image abroad. As a result of this project, de la Vega planned to build the first Parador hotel in the Sierra de Gredos in 1926 , and others followed. Shortly after the inauguration of this first site, the Paradores Committee and Inns of the Kingdom were established.

Growth and crisis

The establishment of the first hotel and the Ibero-American exhibition supported the project and encouraged the opening of further Paradores in important buildings. For example, hotels were opened in Oropesa (1930), Úbeda (1930), Ciudad Rodrigo (1931) and Mérida (1933).

In the 1960s, the organization completed its greatest growth process, at the same time as the important developments in tourism that Spain experienced during this period. In these years the number of Paradores rose from 40 to (2012) 93. The transition in Spain brought a change of ownership of the "General Paradores" with it. Paradores became a state organization.

In the 1980s, some private hotels were added to the Paradores chain under Entusa, some of them emblematic institutions such as the Hospital de los Reyes Católicos in Santiago de Compostela, the Parador of San Marcos ( León ) and the Parador La Muralla ( Ceuta ). The first Parador had 30 rooms, and today there are more than 10,000 beds. Paradores has three objectives: to preserve the national historical and artistic heritage, including important natural areas; create a different image of Spanish tourism abroad; to bring a movement to areas with less tourism and lower economic power.

At the International Tourism Exchange Berlin in March 2012 it was announced that the Paradores Hotels are to be partially privatized. According to the Spanish Minister of Tourism, they had a debt of 83 million euros at the time. As part of a redevelopment plan, seven Paradores should be closed and others only open seven months a year. In January 2013 it was announced that only one hotel, Puerto Lumbreras , will be closed permanently.

Individual houses

  • Emblem of the Paradores

  • historical Parador of León

  • Parador of Aigua Blava above the bay of the same name on the Costa Brava

  • Patio in the historic Parador of Carmona

  • Parador Salamanca - night view of the city

  • Inner courtyard in the historic Parador of Zamora

  • Staircase in the historic Parador of Plasencia

  • Plasencia Historic Parador pool

  • Facade of the historic Parador of Zafra

  • historical Parador of Santiago de Compostela

  • Courtyard of the Parador of Santo Estevo

  • Parador in the extensive castle complex of Cardona

  • Parador Vielha at Vielha e Mijaran

  • Parador in Ronda / view from the pool (1999)

  • Parador in Sigüenza / inner courtyard (1999)

  • Parador in Sigüenza 1999

  • Parador in the Pineta Valley in the Pyrenees

In Portugal there is a similar facility of pousadas , which was introduced in 1942 based on the Spanish model.

literature

  • Wolfgang Abel: Spain's Paradores. Oase Verlag, 3rd edition, Badenweiler 2008, ISBN 978-3-88922-051-6 .
  • Juan Elava Galán: Historical Paradores. Spanish hotels in monasteries, palaces and castles. Könemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-2232-8 .

Web links

Wiktionary: parador  - explanations of meanings, word origins , synonyms, translations
Commons : Paradores de Turismo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on the company's website ( Memento of the original dated July 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 5, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.parador.es
  2. ↑ Problems with Paradores - Spain's most beautiful hotels close SPON from December 7, 2012
  3. ↑ Historical buildings: Spain closes fewer luxury hotels than planned SPON of January 4, 2013, accessed on January 17, 2013