feared

The US feared a boycott of its tourism sector. It already has a first calculation and shows a hole of 12.5 billion dollars

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He “Make America Great Again” promises get expensive To the American tourism industry. Fulfilled the first 100 days of Trump’s mandate and after a start of the year marked by the Tariff warthe aggressive immigration policy from Washington and his distancing from historical allies, such as Canada or the EU, US tourism faces turbulence. He last report of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), based in London, predict that distrust From foreign travelers it will cost the country around 12.5 billion dollars. And the figure goes with a message included. “This is a US government attention call”, warns The WTTC. What happened? That the WTTC, a forum that brings together the private tourism industry, has just thrown a jug of cold water at the expectations of the sector in the US. And the reason is very simple: according to the forecasts of its technicians the travel, hotels, restaurants and other businesses that depend on tourism will enter much less dollars out of foreign pockets. To be more precise the WTTC talks about a loss of about $ 12.5 billion in foreign visitors spending, an “amazing sum”, Apostille. Where does that data come from? The organism does not clarify how it has calculated it, but it does contribute some context. According to your data In 2024 international visitors who arrived in the US spent about 181,000 million dollars. If its forecasts are fulfilled, in 2025 the figure will remain in “just under 169,000 million”. It is a forecast that could vary if the circumstances that have motivated that collapse of spending, but a priori leaves two bad readings. The first is an interannual fall of almost 7%. The second is that the US tourism industry moves away from the data it handled in 2019, before the pandemic. He WTTC calculates that during that year foreign visitors generated a revenue flow of about 217.4 billion euros that promoted job creation in the country. “Today that legacy is in danger,” warns the organism in A statement in which he sends a couple of errands to Donald Trump’s executive. Why is it important? For the weight of tourism in the American economy and the threats it faces. The US is one of the main destinations of the world. His trade department estimates that last year he received some 72.4 million of international visitors who contributed to the tourism and travel sector contributing, as a whole, 2.36 billion of dollars to the national economy and generate more than 20 million jobs. The administration itself benefits from this activity via tax revenues. The problem is that the vast majority of that tourist expense (almost 90%) It did not start with visitors from other countries but from the domestic market, of travelers who moved nationwide, within the country. For the WTTC that percentage is somewhat a challenge. “This strong dependence on local tourism masks a serious vulnerability: true growth resides in the international market, and the US is losing its leadership,” They warn. Spain leaves a good example: the flow of foreign tourists moves in record levels while falls The domestic. Is there anything else? Yes. WTTC forecasts contradict those who handled It is not so much The US National Travel and Tourism Office (NTOO), which expected the flow of international visitors to the US to increase 6.5% between 2024 and 2025 to reach 77.1 million. In 2026 he even trusted to reach 85 million, which would exceed the data prior to the pandemic. By 2027 it provided for an expense level of 279,000 million Of dollars, quite above what the WTTC now forecasts for this year. Are all forecasts? No. The study of the WTCC cites data from March of the US Department of Commerce that already reveal a contraction in the flow of international tourists. Specifically, it shows an interannual “prick” of 15% in the British market, of more than 28% in Germany, almost 15% in South Korea and between 24 and 33% in “other key markets”, such as Colombia or Spain. “As expected, the Canadian market is exhausted: reserves in early summer have dropped more than 20% compared to last year,” Add the WTTCwhich ensures that in general the country is receiving fewer visitors from both its neighbors and distant nations, “a clear indicator that the global attractiveness of the United States decreases.” The agency ensures that it is the only destination of the 184 analyzed that faces the 2025 exercise with a downward forecast. And what is the reason? The newspaper The New York Times remember That in 2024 the spending of travel in the US already remained below the values ​​prior to the health crisis, basically due to the strength of the dollar and its influence on the budgets of tourists from other countries. The situation is quite different today. Both in regard to The currency as to the geopolitical context, which explains for the WTTC what is happening to foreign tourism in the United States. “The world’s largest economy and tourism is on a bad way, not due to lack of demand, but action. While other nations extend the red welcome carpet, the US government hangs the ‘closed’ poster, closed ‘, Julia Simpson ditchExecutive Director of the WTTC. “If urgent measures are not taken to restore travelers’ confidence, the US could take several years to return to the expenditure levels of international visitors prior to the pandemic.” Is it something unforeseen? Not quite. The tariff war, Washington’s clash with Denmark, Canada or Mexico and especially arrests In the borders and the confusion with visas It has been affecting the flow of travelers to the United States for some time. In fact there is talk of A boycott that extends beyond tourism, industry and Commerce. The US International Trade Administration already registered in March that the number of European visitors who spent at least one night in the country had fallen 17% With respect to last year. The data could be explained in part for the effect of Holy Week … Read more

The reason why electricity took more than 15 hours to restore 100% in Spain: the feared “Black Start”

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The Iberian Peninsula went out at 12:33 of April 28. In just five seconds, two southwest disconnections of the peninsula They removed more than half of the instant demand from the network. The frequency collapsed and interconnection with France jumped by instability. Spain stayed at 0 MW and 0 Hz, never seen. Resting the service was the real challenge. 15 hours of surgical work. At 03:30 on Tuesday, Red Eléctrica, the Spanish electrical system operator, announced that 99.95% of the demand was covered again (100% was not reached until the afternoon in the afternoon). Spain starred in greater practical exercise of replacement of a European network From the great continental blackout of 2006, The first on this scale from a country that obtains its energy mainly from renewable sources. The dreaded Black Start. Turn on the light out of nowhere, start the zero power grid. With 50 million users, Spain has faced One of the most challenging cases of “Black Start” They are remembered. He needed 15 hours because he had to go step by step, first starting the most flexible plants: hydroelectric plants, enabled for Black Start with diesel structure to feed pumps, valves and control systems). Mainless Spain redeemed. With 10% of the Spanish mix and 25% of the Portuguese, the pumping hydraulics was the first ammunition: The hydroelectric plants of the Muela and Aldeadávila They synchronized in three minutes, moving from zero to 3 GW. Each central created its 50 Hz “island” (the frequency at which the turbines have to turn) before introducing load. Red Electric was connecting the turbines one by one and introducing load in a dosing way so as not to stop them. Gas for climbing. With the nuclear off (except for the imported of France, which provided 1.4 GW of power in the replacement), the gas plants became the backbone of the network before reincorporating renewables. Monday’s wind was almost calm and the photovoltaic disappeared at nightfall, so the weight fell on water and gas. Morocco injected several hundred MW who were critical to start plants in Andalusia. As for nuclear. The automatic cut of five of the seven reactors generated a radio traffic jam: the xenon-135 accumulated after a sudden stop absorbs neutrons and blocks the reaction for 24-48 h. 32 hours after the blackout, No nuclear had yet been synchronized. That 3-4 GW hole synchronous forced to squeeze hydraulics and gas and delayed total recovery. The fuses jumped. When the blackout occurred, more than 70% of the generation was renewable (37% solar, 32% wind). 3.4 GW of nuclear energy, 1.6 GW of cycles and 1.4 GW of cogeneration provided the synchronous inertia of the network, but were not enough to compensate for the disconnection of two stations. Neither The interconnected network was enough to sustain the frequency (only 3 GW with France and 700 MW with Morocco). The substations acted as giant fuses against imbalance and isolated the network to avoid catastrophic damage. That is why it is said that Spain and Portugal are energy islands, despite being in the same network as the rest of European countries. Some lessons. With high renewable quotas, which They do not have the inertia of other energy sources To stabilize the network, it takes a greater resilience than the European electricity grid. In other words, invest in investors at network level, batteries and renewable synchronous (biomass or more pumping hydraulics). As well as in better interconnections. All this is planned, but it was not on time to avoid the blackout and the Black Start. Image | Electric Red In Xataka | We have just lived the first great blackout of the renewable era. The debate is now how to get the last one

After the mass blackout of Spain he feared looting and security problems. Reality was very different

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Nor pillage. Nor Latrocinio. No chaos unleashed in the streets. Although most of the country stayed yesterday to two candles (literally) and Thousands of Spaniards They went to sleep yet without electricity in their homes and businesses, on April 28, 2025 will not go down in history because it is a day of chaos. Not everything was An oil raftof course, but this morning the Interior Ministry He underlined that the night has been “quiet”, “without remarkable security incidents.” Nothing that the country has not already lived during the pandemic, when Spain already demonstrated its obedience during the alarm states to stop the COVID-19. That almost a country is based black (in energy terms), as happened on Monday at 12.33 h in Spain, it obviously has multiple derivatives. It affects the industry. It affects trade. It affects mobility and education. And affects security. Yesterday the government declared The national emergency in eight communities and one of the issues that was in the public debate during the first hours was precisely The media deployment To guarantee security. “Security problems” “Madrid has 9,000 streets, 3.5 million inhabitants … If a city is these dimensions, we are all aware, we are all aware that they can give Security problems at very diverse and different points “, warned In the afternoon the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. Without electricity, many businesses were left without a dataphone, but also without surveillance or automatic systems that allow them to close their premises. The fear of looting and robberies during the blackout even led some merchants to monitor their stores. In Ayamonte, Huelva, there were who The night passed In their businesses unable to lower the blinds and in Granada the newspaper Ideal speaks of entrepreneurs in a similar situation that resisted to leave their premises. “People take advantage of to steal and we have no system here that allows us to ensure the store,” admitted a ABC The clerk of a store in the center of Madrid while waiting for the supply to be restored. His suspicion was understandable. Click on the image to go to Tweet. After the Dana de Valencia there were those who took advantage of chaos to make looting and take home batteries, sports material, telephones or consoles, for example, sometimes even with truck help. Only the night from October 30 the National Police arrested 39 people During a surveillance campaign in commercial areas and weeks later, in mid -November, the number of detainees for looting in the areas affected by the rains over 400. It is not even necessary that an event as devastating as the DANA of Valencia occurs. In 1977 New York lived An electric cut which lasted for a day and resulted in a “night of terror”, in the words of the magazine Timewith the looting of more than 1,615 storesmore than 1,000 fires, around 4,000 detainees and hundreds of injured police. A few weeks ago Before a mass blackout also affected much of Chile, the Buric government chose to decree the state of exception and imposed a curfew between ten and six in the morning. In Spain the authorities also chose reinforce securityalthough without reaching such drastic measures. The Government Precise that between Monday and Tuesday they deployed through the country More than 30,000 agents of the National Police and Civil Guard, to which other forces of autonomic and local bodies are added. Click on the image to go to Tweet. In Catalonia Los Mossos d’esquadra They lengthened shifts and activated a night security plan with something More than 7,200 agentswhile there were cities that also increased their local endowments. In Vigo The mayor said Yesterday that the Local Police would triple their efforts and at night 13 municipal patrols would be deployed, to which almost twenty nationals would be added. What has been the balance? A relative tranquility. At least if one takes into account that, although part of the country began to recover electricity within a few hours, there have been cities that took More than 14 hours in having light and the day was marked by Communications problems and traffic lights. The total alert balance is not yet known, but inner speaks of a “quiet night and without remarkable incidents of security or public order” and both the Mayor of Madrid like that of Barcelona They have highlighted the “civism” of their neighbors. “The Madrid have shown that they give their best in the most difficult moments. In front of the blackout, a lesson of civility,” Almeida presumes. That does not mean that the last hours have been An oil raft. Eldiario speaks Of robbery attempts, activated alarms and “some” burning containers in localities of Andalusia and in the city of the emergency services had attended in the afternoon Double of calls of the usual, although Many incidents They were related to people trapped in elevators or people with mobility problems. In Other cities From the country and less inhabitants, the dripping of notices to the authorities throughout the day was also intense. The most graphic answer He has given it However, this morning, Mayor José Luis Martínez- Almeida when they have asked him about how the night had gone in the capital, in which, he says, only a reysta and a launa was recorded. “Quieter than anyone”, summarizes the councilor from Madrid. Image | Xataka In Xataka | We still do not know what caused the blackout in Spain, but experts already dispute a theory: the role of renewables

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