Yahoo – AFP,
24 July 2015
Saudi
Arabia's King Salman will holiday in France with an entourage of more
than 1,000
people (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)
|
Vallauris
(France) (AFP) - King Salman of Saudi Arabia is expected to arrive in France
later Friday for a Riviera beach holiday, bringing with him no fewer than 1,000
people from his entourage.
While the
king's three-week visit is a boon for the local economy, it has also sparked
anger due to the closure of a public beach for the privacy and security of the
royal party.
The king's
inner circle will be put up at the family's private villa, which stretches
across a kilometre of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille.
Some 700
other members of his entourage will be accommodated at top hotels on the
promenade in Cannes.
Hundreds of
other Saudis will be following the king on his holiday -- as is the tradition
-- bringing the total number of Saudi citizens flooding into the southern
French beach resorts to around 1,000.
"Clearly
this is good news," said Michel Chevillon, president of an association
representing hotel managers in Cannes.
"These
are people with great purchasing power which will pep up not only the luxury
hotel industry but also the retail and tourism sectors of the town," said
Chevillon.
General
view of the public beach called "La Mirandole", located below a villa
owned by the Saudi King, on July 20, 2015 in Vallauris, southeastern France
(AFP Photo/Valery Hache)
|
But not
everyone is happy.
An entire
kilometre of public beach will be cordoned off for security and privacy reasons
and coastguards will stop anyone coming within 300 metres of the villa by sea.
The Saudis
also generated a great deal of anger by starting work on an elevator from the
beach to the villa, which involved pouring a huge slab of cement directly on to
the sand.
A petition
against the "privatisation" of the public beach gathered more than
45,000 signatures in eight days.
"We
recall that this natural zone, like all maritime public estates, is an
intrinsic public property that should be available for the benefit of all,
residents, tourists, French, foreigners or people passing through," said
the petition.
"We
ask the state to guarantee the fundamental principle of the equality of all
citizens before the law," the text added.
"We're
sick and tired of this messing around," said a local woman, more
succinctly.
"I can
see it's normal that you need to guarantee their security but they should let
us go for a swim."
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