Just got back from a weeks stay and i must say i have never seen salou looking so dead there is nobody there the place is deserted whats happening?

No. Salou is certainly not dying. All that is happening, is the decline in Tourists having sufficient spare cash to indulge themselves in a Spanish holiday. Simple as that, sadly. The Season has had a very protracted start, mainly because Easter was so early again this year, and the momentum between then and the start of the main season gets lost.
Salou is ready, willing and able to provide wonderful holidays, as it always has been, but times are hard for most of Europe, and this reflects immediately on Tourist levels. As a result, there is a LOT of belt-tightening going on right now, to be able to maintain our customary levels of quality facilities as WELL as weather and sea and beaches etc., but if the lifeblood provided by our visitors starts to dry up as a result of the financial striations we ALL are experiencing, then the atmosphere here suffers too.
We experienced the same sort of drop in Tourist numbers in the early nineties, when Robert Maxwell decided to vent his Media Ire upon Salou, but we survived, and came back stronger than ever.
We will continue to survive to the best of our ability, in order to provide the excellent family holidays that make up the history of Salou. But we need your help too!! So if you can afford it, come on over..the weather is starting to get a lot more 'summery' now, and the late arrival of our typical Mediterranean climate this year hasn't helped either.The perfect storm, you might say!! But don't worry, Salou is made of sterner stuff than that, and we will be here for you when you can make the trip to our Happy Holiday Town

It is not only Salou suffering,all of the costas are too,the mighty Benidorm more than most! France,Italy and Greece have similar problems and I am sure that those Brits holidaying at home will be spending less at Blackpool,Brighton etc. Everyone is keeping hold of their spare money due to the economic situation! Fact!

I´m in Salou now and it is certainly not dead!!!

You should have seen the beach earlier, absolutely rammed.

Wondering around last night lots of the bars were very busy and Carles Buijas and Zaragosa streets are very busy with soveneir (can´t spell it ) shoppers.

For early June and given the circumstances this year its actually busier than I expected.

Unless there has been a sudden increase in tourists since I arrived on Tuesday then I have no idea how you can think its dead

I´ll post more on my visit when I get home on Tuesday.
Been a nice day today, hope it stays like it because its been quite overcast

will be arriving next sat and cant wait.love salou busy or not even my 17 year old loves it along with all her friends.we have taken friends over at different times of the year and everyone enjoyed the craic and friendliness of all the people we met.

i have been to salou at different times in the season and july always seems to be not very busy, i like it like that, yes it is nice to see the resort buzzing with tourists but at least around this time of year you can enjoy a holiday the beach , theme park and water parks without the queues etc, september and august can be very busy,as has been mentioned the tourist industry is suffering at the moment because of the ecconomic climate so it's not just salou that is quiet it's the whole of the industry, so the answer to your question is NO! salou is not dying and never will the industry and salou will recover but it will take time, i will be there in three weeks can't wait

No mention of the volcano in this thread. I had two flights in April and May cancelled by the ash. 1,000's of would be tourists had their flights cancelled to Reus in these two months affecting the season start. Also many people and families did not even bother booking for fears that they : -
a). Could not get back
b). Even worse.... stranded at a UK airport waiting to go!
Many of my friends who would never consider a UK holiday have already ventured to Devon, Somerset, Cornwall and Wales due to flight concerns.
Add all this to other monetary problems and you have the perfect recipe for an empty Salou

Drove into Salou last night, and snatched a quick mobile phone pic..Salou is FAR from dead!! At around 9:00pm, this was the junction of Carlos Buigas and the promenade:


Completely off-the-cuff photo, not staged or sought-after
The beginning of June has been typical. For as long as I can remember, it was always a 'slow' period, but it picks up sharply after the first week or two. And so it is happening! Carlos Buigas was doing pretty well, with a LOT of tourists meandering around, checking the gift shops and bars etc. It WILL get busier as the month progresses.

How do you add pictures? I can put one on of the beach that I took yesterday.

At 3am when I was walking to the Avenida this morning you couldn´t even walk on the paths it was that busy. Even busier than Nick´s 9PM picture!

I upload them into Facebook or Flickr (but there are many other photo hosting websites).

You can then link to them from your post using the 'img' command. Bit like the url command for a web link but the img displays a photo/picture on the web.

e.g. There is a picture of Green's howler from the Guardian at http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/6/13/1276451652830/Robert-Green-howler-006.jpg
Use img with [ brackets and it will display like this : -

I agree I always come June every year and although it isnt heaving its always busy never varies this time of year, you need to remember a lot come in school hols or a bit later on to get the max temperature butit's certainly busy even in June!

of course the road to the avenida would be busy at 3am it was saturday night same as with the photo at the week end we get an influx of visitors from barcelona lledia zarragossa etc unfortunatly thes visitors dont put money into the brit/irish buisnesses the dont even put money into the spanish buisnesses as they tend to arrive with all their provisions from their respective homes, they drink from bottles and cans in their cars. what we need is more people in the bars. the all inclusive deals are doing no one any favors. with the restraunts cafes and bars struggeling to survive as more visitors remain in the hotels the knock on effect will be more places closing then who wants to come on holliday to walk down streets with every other shop bar closed and shuttered just think what salou is like in winter with all the hotels borded up so come out forget the all inclusive packages spend money in the area so everyone can make a living and salou will rise again

The Spanish don't walk around in shorts at night, and they rarely go out to eat or have a nice evening before midnight!! Those people I photographed were 90%Brits. On the other hand, I totally agree with you on 'All-in' Hotels. Sadly the British 'couch potato' syndrome whilst at home seems to be reflected in their general desire to sit down in their Hotel bar and sometimes grumble HERE.
Now, this is NOT a slight on RJP; just an opinion based on fact: To use the same Acts in Bars etc., as appear in the hotels, is good for RJP..and hats off to him for his Entrepreneurship! BUT...in the 'old days', the entertainment in the Hotels was totally different from the Independent Acts who worked in the Bars etc, meaning the Tourists would go out and see totally different Acts wherever they went in Salou. So, if I might make a suggestion here Rodney: why not have two different sections of your very good Agency. One to supply to the Hotels, and another to perform in the Bars? Maybe this would help the Bars and other 'Brit' venues to entice people out in the evenings?
As I have retired,I hope you understand that I am NOT criticising or biased against you . Sure I was when I was an 'Indy' Act around Salou, but I'm not any more, so there is no point in me trying to defend a job I no longer do!! This is just a thought I have had for some time now, and have wondered if you have thought about it this way?

agree with resident about the ai packages doing local trade no good and i much prefer going self catering sampling the local bars and restaurants every night but doing an online search for a family of four in july for seven nights self catering was £1768 the all inclusive was £1608. as much as i like to go self catering the ai package is appealling. this is going to be a major problem for local traders in the future as proof of this comes with the closure of gordons bar in la pineda

maybe gordons bar closed as it still had the same decor menu and staff as the day it opened you have to move with the times and change with the changes as some of the more intelligent businesses have done.

Hi, that's really sad about Gordon's bar 😔 it was a great place very friendly &. Food was great, how long ago did this happen? Any news on the family is Gordon still around???? Thanx x

GLAD TO BE REMEMBERD AND THINGS HAVE TO CHANGE. HOPE YOUR HOLIDAY WAS A WELL REMEBERD ONE GETTING TO KNOW US.GORDON DIED 27/07/2010 AT THE AGE OF 80. DOREEN IS STILL GOING VERY FRAIL BUT LIVING HER LIFE WITH ALL THE GOOD MEMERIES.