Coastrider 569

www.coastriderspain.com [email protected] Torrevieja and local areas Tuesday, October 20th 2015 - Edition 569 Tel: 673 196 455 APYMECO hold a special meeting The Association of Merchants and Professionals in Torrevieja (Apymeco) called an emergency meeting for all of its members that was held last night in its headquarters in Calle Ramon Gallud 115. The call requested the assistance of all partners, numbering about two hundred, detailing the fact that Board of Apymeco is "in a critical situation, in terms of campaigns, events, projects and agreements that directly affect their business." The summons to the meeting was called by the president of the organization, Caridid Salmeron, who highlighted the fact that "individual and collective support and commitment is needed to get out of this difficult situation in which trade is Torrevieja." Help and support from the new pentapartito council has been poor, especially from the Department of Commerce. This fact was highlighted by the fact that the Mayor, Jose Manuel Dolon and other council members, including the Green party's Councillor for Commerce, told untruths to Apymeco few weeks ago when he publicly announced that the MS Amadea would be sending 90% of their guests on evening shore excursions to Cartagana and Zenia Blvd: a statement that was completely unfounded and untrue and even the Director of Cruising at Phoenix Reising questioned where the Mayor had received his information from. As a result, Apymeco publicly denounced the Mayor and the pentapartito council for their lack of foresight of activities for cruise passengers who arrived on the ship 'MS Amadea'. However, thanks to the Costa Blanca Tourism Board getting involved, and the Town Hall being also forced into action, eventually most of the guests from the MS Amadea came ashore and visited the city during the hours that the ship was in Torrevieja. However the Mayor was totally conspicuous on the day by his absence, as was the Councillor for Commerce, as during the entire time that the Cruise ship was in port, they were nowhere to be seen. On a history making day when Torrevieja received their first cruise ship ever, it was only thanks to the concerted efforts of Apymeco and the involvement of the Costa Banca Tourism Board that turned the ship arrival into a success. Other commentators have pointed out in the media that it seemed as if the pentapartito government would have A Star is Born Torrevieja’s own singer songwriter Shani Ormiston will be winging her way to Hollywood after securing an unbelievable 7th nomination at the Music in Media awards to be held November 11th at The Fonda Theatre, Hollywood California. The songwriter penned ‘Brave’ some years ago and the song has been nominated three years in a row in the Adult Contemporary Category – let’s hope its third time lucky. Shani began to really make a name for herself in 2008 after the release of her first album ‘This Is Me’. Eleven songs in Spanish and English achieved worldwide recognition with their ‘fresh and catchy’ feel. The single ‘How Do You Know’ reached number 1 in Radio Roda Albacete charts and achieved airplay on other well-known local radio stations as well as further afield. Her second album ‘Once Upon A Time’ released in 2012, featured ten songs with a ‘European dance-pop sound’ and won several awards including Best Soloist Musical Work 2012-13 at the Provincial Youth Awards in Alicante. The Hollywood Music Media Awards is a contest to promote emerging artists globally. Shani won the Coastrider Best Female Vocalist award in 2012 and went on to represent Spain at Italy’s premier music event Biela Festival Autori e Cantautori. She has received invitations to perform with some household names along the way such as Ricky Vallance, Leo Segarra, Joe Longthorne, Christina del Valle of Amistades Peligrosas and Margharita Pirri – the Italian vocal goddess whose own composition was selected for the Armani television adverts this year. In June Shani won second prize at The International Original Music Festival in Alicante with a mesmerising performance of one of her own compositions. The ability to write her emotive songs in both Spanish and English ensure that Shani’s light will continue to shine bright for a long time to come. preferred the ship arrival to be a complete failure so that the council could then lay the blame at the feet of the opposition Partido Popular, who organised the ship to call into Torrevieja, when they were in power. Last week the pentapartito council announced that they were spending 18,000€ planning a Zombie Survival game on Halloween night. The council also cancelled the planned Halloween Parade and special shopping night for Halloween, which over the past two years has attracted thousands of visitors to the town centre and resulted in major revenue being generated by shops, cafes, restaurants and bars in the town centre. However the Zombie Survival game does not start until 11.00pm, resulting in Halloween being 'just another Saturday night' in the Town Centre, with the shops closing at their normal time and without any additional revenue being generated. To add to this insult to injury, the Zombie Survival expects to attract at least 2,000 game players thus pulling a lot of trade away from city centre bars and all the activities that they had planned for the evening. To date, the Department of Commerce run by the pentapartito council has yet to add one new activity to increase trade or commerce for business in Torrevieja. The Coastrider has been a proud supporter of APYMECO for more than a decade and wish them all the success for their future endeavours. This summer Shani has been performing a series of shows at The Casino Mediterraneo, La Zenia and has recently performed at the p