Madrid cleaning strike: Tourists cancel hotels and Christmas breaks in the capital at the last minute

Christmas bookings are being called off constantly, say worried hotel bosses, and all businesses connected with the holiday industry are concerned they may face huge financial losses this year.

Madrid's tourism sector earns over 40 per cent of its annual profits from the Christmas period alone.

But would-be visitors from the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, China, Russia and the USA have decided not to go to the Spanish capital after all, and some are choosing to spend a few days in Barcelona instead.

Travel agencies and tour operators say a sudden flood of cancellations have been received in the last two days and, although not everyone has said the filthy state of the city is their reason for doing so, the last-minute booking changes appeared to coincide with exactly when photographs of the insalubrious conditions in Madrid were published in the international media.

French and Dutch tourists are among those who have cancelled the majority of bookings, more so than the British, and those who appear least bothered are the Chinese and Russians, travel agencies say.

This could be partly due to the distance they had planned to travel, which may make changing their destination or calling off their trips expensive, difficult or disappointing.

Piles of rubbish and bin-bags on the streets, litter, broke glass, dog excrement, vomit, rotting fruit falling from trees and remains of days-old food fill pavements, squares, roads, parks and benches, causing a foul stench and leading to problems with flies, maggots, cockroaches and rats.

In many cases, the heaps of refuse in the streets of the city centre are so high that they actually prevent customers from entering shops, complain retailers.

Many business-owners and caretakers for blocks of flats have been clearing up the mess themselves to limit the damage.

And shopkeepers say Madrid city council is doing little or nothing to help the situation.

Not only is the cleaning strike causing massive economic losses in the tourism and retail sectors at present, but mud sticks, say traders.

They say it could take them months or even years for Madrid to restore its image as an attractive European city to visit, and this will involve hundreds of thousands of euros extra in PR and advertising campaigns.

Troubles with pilot and baggage-handling strikes staged by Iberia workers at Barajas airport, and the recent hike in airport taxes, have already put tourists off recently and the cleaning strike is the last straw, hoteliers and store owners complain.

Street-cleaners employed by the four firms contracted by the city council are now on the 12^th day of their strike over the planned redundancies of 1,100 out of 6,000 workers, hefty wage cuts, and the fact that job losses to date have already left them unable to cope with the workload.

Gardeners working for the same firms have also downed tools, meaning parks, pathways, pavements and entire streets are literally knee-deep in dead leaves that have fallen off trees.

Mayoress Ana Botella issued an ultimatum on Wednesday at 17.00hrs, saying that if the picketers did not get back to work within 48 hours, she would employ another company – Tragsa – to tidy up the capital and would send the bill to the franchise firms.

Negotiations so far between the companies and staff unions have failed to bear fruit.