The Benalmádena Town Hall has sent the necessary urban development progress to the Junta de Andalucía for the reopening of the amusement park. Meanwhile, former workers continue to maintain the facilities without pay.
The Benalmádena Town Hall has taken a new administrative step towards the reopening of the iconic Tivoli World, closed for almost six years. On July 15, the council sent the progress of the Urban Transformation Action to the Department of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy of the Junta de Andalucía, a key procedure to unlock the park's future.
A necessary urban procedure
The regional administration now has a period of three months to issue the strategic environmental report. Once approved, a month will be opened to draft the Detailed Urban Planning Instrument. This process is essential for the Tremón group, the landowners, to execute the reopening project agreed with the Town Hall.
However, this administrative progress has not brought any change for the former workers of the park. Since its closure in 2020, a dozen permanent employees — out of the 23 that were there — continue to carry out surveillance and maintenance tasks without receiving any salary.
The workers' struggle
“We are still in the same situation, trying to maintain the park with us inside and with surveillance,” explains Juan Carmona, one of the former workers, to Europa Press. Carmona, 56, has spent his entire professional life at Tivoli and now sleeps on the premises to prevent vandalism. “I wouldn't sleep peacefully thinking that this place, which has given me life and where I have learned so much, would be destroyed,” he adds.
The workers organise themselves according to the needs of the site, especially for cleaning tasks, which require more manpower. They carry out one or two general cleanings a year, although high summer temperatures make these tasks difficult. Several have retired and others have found alternative jobs, but many would return “with their eyes closed” if the park reopened.
A symbol of the Costa del Sol
The Tivoli World, opened in 1972, was for decades a benchmark for leisure on the Costa del Sol, attracting thousands of tourists and families. Its closure in 2020 left a void in the tourist offer of Benalmádena and plunged its workers into a long uncertainty. The reopening protocol signed a year ago between the Town Hall and Tremón renewed hopes, but the timelines have been extended.
The site needs renovations, repainting, and work on the gardens, which have suffered from the passage of time. Meanwhile, employees continue their surveillance work, sometimes deceiving their families to avoid worrying them: Carmona confesses that he tells his parents he sleeps at home, although in reality he stays in the park 24 hours a day, and even during family visits, he remotely monitors the site with a tablet.
What awaits Tivoli World?
If the strategic environmental report is favourable, the urban project could be ready in the coming months. From there, Tremón will need to present the detailed plan and obtain the corresponding licenses. For the residents of Benalmádena and the Costa del Sol, the reopening would mean recovering an icon of leisure and a boost for local tourism. For now, the park remains closed, but the administrative machinery has been set in motion.
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