Press Coverage: Madeleine, Kate and Gerry McCann
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
THE PORTUGAL NEWS ONLINE: “Business as usual in Praia da Luz”
Tourism is booming at the Ocean Club…
Robin Crosland has been in the Algarve for more than twenty six years. During that time, he has seen Praia da Luz grow exponentially.
He can remember way back when it was media as far as the eye could see…
The Ocean Club, of which he was architect and co-founder, has played a major role in the development of the once quintessential fishermen’s village and remains in the heart of Luz in more ways than one.
Can the name not be changed?
“I came here to help my partners, John Garveigh and David Symington, set up The Ocean Club. I was an architect, not an hotelier, and there was nothing here but fields, orchids, orange groves, olive tress - and a snake and a bull.”
Snakes and bull. That’s the Madeleine McCann story for you…
“The first unit we sold, a two-bedroom apartment with sea view, was put on the market for £11,000. That same apartment today is worth around €280,000”, 20 times its original value.”
Of course, some flats come with a premium. A bit of local history can affect prices…
The Ocean Club resort gained notoriety when it was thrust into the limelight on May 3rd last year, following the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The British toddler’s face was broadcast into homes around the world, as was Praia da Luz, and the Ocean Club became a household name caught amidst an unprecedented media frenzy in Portugal.
It was a multi-media brochure, advertising the delights of living in Paedo, sorry, Portugal…
Over the past 16 months reports have sporadically emerged stating that, as a consequence of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, Ocean Club guest figures have plummeted, that people considered Praia da Luz to be an unsafe spot for families and resulted in the temporary tarnishing of the Algarve’s idyllic image.
Well, there are many other places to holiday. Although some hacks prefer Praia to any other resort..
Robin is quick to rubbish all of these reports, as have other leading authorities and tourism officials, denying that having the resort’s name associated with one of the biggest child-related mysteries of modern times had a damaging effect.
Now the media has left town, there are lots of rooms…
“But no one wants that type of publicity, at all”, Robin admits, stating “there were some immediate cancellations, until around October last year, but then things levelled out again”.
So let’s not talk about Madeleine McCann, nor dwell on the missing child. But in case you are tempted to make link between the Ocean Club and the missing toddler, Mr Crossland has prepared a statement:
“It was of course a terrible tragedy and all our hearts went out to the family, the whole village as well as our staff were deeply upset and the out-pouring of grief was enormous…
“We still had another 600 guests to look after who had paid to stay with us and who had nothing to do with this event and wanted to enjoy their holiday”.
600. Have they all been questiosned, or profiled by the media?
He says that, whilst figures were not as good as in 2006, when the Algarve experienced a mini-boom in tourism, this year “The Ocean Club continued to attract families with children of all ages with the exception of April and early May when there were fewer families with pre-school children. But by June, these had also returned to normal and by July and August things were more or less back to normal occupancy figures”.
Anything changed much?
Criticised at the time for its lack of CCTV cameras, as were many resorts last year following the debate for new safety measures, Robin retorts: “Most of the resort is spread throughout the village, the units are accessed via public roads and paths and in Portugal it is illegal to have security video cameras in public places. On private property we don’t need them as we have manned receptions”.
And:
In the meantime, The Ocean Club is planning to make “considerable investments” during this winter, which include upgrading restaurant areas.
Turn the beer goggles the other way up. Pass the binoculars…
Madeleine McCann is missing - still missing…
Online PR: Madeleine McCann Used To Sell Holiday Flats
Madeleine McCann: Buy The Flat And The Villa For The Maddie Experience
Madeleine McCann: Live Like The McCanns As Their Praia Da Luz Apartment Goes On Sale
Posted: 7th, October 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (177) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
- Cheryl on US Forced Fort Hood Murderer Nidal Hasan To Join The Army
- IRONSIDE on X Factor Live Blog: Olly Murs Marries And Danyl Johnson Does Prince Over
- Graeme (aka eggman) on X Factor: Jedward, John & Edward, Are Voted Out, But Then
- Teresa on Katie Price: Peter Andre Too Outraged To Talk About Secret Abortion, Sources Say
- Lauren on X Factor: Jedward, John & Edward, Are Voted Out, But Then
October 8th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Karen
October 8th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Agreed. That’s something that allways puzzled me. The media attention. Did they cause that or was it something/someone else that caused it? A photogenetic girl + a mystery = selling papers? A combination of both?
Did they really control/cause things or did they just float by the stream?
We know all this didn’t result in finding Madeleine, yet how would we think about it if it had resulted into her safe return?
Yet I wasn’t talking about that or about suspecting them/their friends/somebody else.
I said “I prefer the professionals/trained persons who’ve got access to all files/reports/statements etc. solving a crime, in stead of a witch hunt by biased amateurs/internet posters, who judge people without real, hard, evidence.”
If you was suspected of committing a crime, whom would you prefer to investigate it: the police who’ve got access to [possible] evidence, or some anonymous people who’re saying how suspicious it is the way you dress or wearing earrings.
Madame Justice sometimes makes mistakes, yet I still prefer this system, as I’m sure amateurs make even more mistakes. When I need my galle bladder removed, I prefer it to be done in a hospital by a surgeon.
October 8th, 2008 at 8:22 am
thank goodness.
October 8th, 2008 at 8:22 am
new fred
October 8th, 2008 at 8:20 am
brandon!!!!!!
It’s a bit early in the morning for such talk !
October 8th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Mrs T
I thought he was refering to me
I would love to get fingered by a solicitor
October 8th, 2008 at 8:18 am
brandon, no idea, do you think they’d hire a broken record ?
October 8th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I see Rasputin has been reading the 3A’s again
Why he/she just doesn’t write the name of the site is beyond me
October 8th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Hi Sam
Just catching up. I was just wondering if garth, and rasputin are Carter ruck tea boys
October 8th, 2008 at 8:10 am
morning brandon, i was wondering when someone would wake up
October 8th, 2008 at 8:05 am
I was niave and acting in the bounds of a responsible caring citizen
October 8th, 2008 at 8:01 am
For the perusal of the badly informed, http://tinyurl.com/4y2cyh
October 8th, 2008 at 8:00 am
yes the mc canns and some andrex
October 8th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Carter Ruck do what they do very well, they use the remit of the law they do not bully.
They are also monitoring a rather dubious board, which is known for its rather careless statements of non-fact, some people are in for an exceedingly large shock, followed by white papers.
October 8th, 2008 at 7:03 am
jo, just read paulo’s blog, thanks. most interesting, so carter ruck is bullying bloggers.
October 8th, 2008 at 6:16 am
karen, i read that as the ‘kate and gerry story’ there for a second. good morning.
October 8th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Hi Totje
It’s fair enough to judge their media profile though - since they have a P.R. and there was a lot of coverage that simply treated them as celebrities (unless I dreamt ‘The Kate and Gerry Story’ that featured in the Daily Mail - him in his Rugby outfit, Kate at her 1st Holy Communion, how they met…. maybe I did dream it….
).
October 8th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Here we gooooo….!
At long last!A little fury
Watch out! the mccannSpies have been spying on us
Read and enjoy!
*New slur on Madeline McCann’s father Gerry by shamed cop *
By Nick Owens 7/09/2
“Kate and Gerry are looking and watching at everything he does and will not hesitate to take legal action against him if he continues to act in this sickening manner.” Last week Kate herself spoke angrily about Amaral. She said: “As a professional and a person he has been a disgrace.”
YES! YES! YES!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/09/07/new-slur-on-madeline-mccann-s-father-gerry-by-shamed-cop-115875-20728086/
October 8th, 2008 at 1:17 am
7.10.08
News after a long absence
Since early September, my activity in this page has been reduced. I came to Macau, on holidays, and I decided to accept a job offer. It is a full-time job, as editor of a local Portuguese daily newspaper, and I’ve been quite busy. I will keep posting, about Madeleine’s case (*) but not with the same regularity. Soon, I’ll have some interesting news, after a long and detailed analysis of the attendance sheets from the Ocean Club crèches.
One of the aspects that surprised me is the fact that several registrations, on those sheets, have the time (and signatures) when children (not the McCann’s kids…) were left there, but no signature and no mention about the time they went out. This detail raises doubts about the level of control that Ocean Club staff had, concerning children in their crèches. Either the control was not as good as they referred, or there is something strange with those attendance sheets.
(*) I received a letter from Carter-Ruck, threatening to take me to court, if I don’t stop immediately writing about the case - something I have no intention to do.
Bien dicho,Paulo
Excellent work
http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/
October 8th, 2008 at 1:06 am
annie1
A slip of the tongue and a roller coaster… nice one
Good night
I am off to bed too xxx
October 8th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Well, I am off to my bed - I have a very busy day of doing nothing planned for tomorrow, but I still need the energy to decide which side of the bed I shall get out of and then the real dilema - what to have for breakfast??!!
Night everyone
October 8th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Jo, The McCanns and their friends obviously are the ones who hold all of the answers. Their non ability to be clear in their answers to questions, shows, in my opinion that they are not wanting the whole truth to be known. I think that the Police in the UK know that if they decide to delve into the pit of this case, they will be letting themselves in for a huge amount of police time, which I suppose rightly so, is just not available. If the outcome of any investigation by the UK police showed that the McCs were guilty - it would cast doubts on the abilities of the pj (maybe) and if they came to no more positive conclusions than the pj did - then it would be a complete waste of public money. My thoughts are that sometime in the future one or more of the tapas lot will let something drop - maybe after a few drinks at a party, maybe at work, maybe with venim - all of them cannot possibly keep quiet for ever, can they.
This is not a situation relevant to this case, but it may put the idea of nothing is secret forever into perspective. My mother who is in her late eighties was thinking back to her earlier years - just me and her in the room and she suddenly started to tell me about a family member, well into her seventies, who was apparently not the daughter of the man she had known as her father. This came as quite a shock, and when I asked my mother about it she revealed the details. The person in question to this day has no idea, and for over seventy years my mother had kept the secret - but you see, eventually, maybe intentionally, maybe by a slip of the tongue - but the truth will out.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Annie
“I thought, after my removal – said Mr. Amaral – that the authorities from the country where the girl was born , certainly, never opened an inquest for her, if they did not want to know what happened to her and if they endorsed the abduction thesis, why should I worry? Our work is out in the open on the process files, destroying them is the only way to erase the record of what was done.
It’s still possible that Justice can be done, for example if anyone from the group of the nine friends decides to talk.”
*****
Why doesnt the LP open an enquest SUPPORTED by the “wobbly- wigged- legal guardian- with NO voice for Madeleine- person”
Which friend should decide to talk?
Is this that simple? This is the story of a simple case that became one of the most complicated,mediatised and never seen case of all times…..What for?
October 8th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Jo
You aren’t funny.
I felt someone needed to tell you that, as you obviously have the mistaken belief that you are.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:12 am
annie1 Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
++++++
More unsubstantiated nonsense.
Ad hominem arguments don’t help.
It shows you’re incapable of presenting a rational argument.
End off.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:05 am
annie1
October 7th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Totje Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
You maybe do not judge the McCanns, but you certainly judge the posters on here - you are a typical example of “do as I say and not as I do”
October 7th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
annie1 Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
YES!! Just what I wanted to hear Jo,
*****
The human factor,Annie.Very important
October 7th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
The Real Stig
You will have to explain why you have a reading problem
There was NO abduction and there certainely was the “abduction” of a body because where is the body? where IS Madeleine dead or alive?
In a castle playing the “little princess”? oh…no,no…is she in a cellar somewhere?where on Mars or venus? or was it Deneb?
Come off it or no,think what you want,you”re alone
October 7th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Annie1
“YOU ARE ONE OF THEM!! lol”
Good one! Like it.
But it’s not true, though I’m a poster, I don’t judge anyone [except I think it was wrong of them and their friends to leave the kids alone while having dinner].
I don’t judge neither “them”, “one of the friends” or “Murat”. Never did, never will do that. Never said any of them did it. Though it is a possibility. But we don’t know about all the other possibilities. What’s released on the dvd won’t tell us about that.
Silly of me maybe, but I do trust Rebelo and his team. And I hope one day the truth will be found about what happened.
Châtelaine : dunno. Maria went on a holiday and never returned [uhhhmm] and Whoops posted some two weeks ago.
Really off now. Nite nite again.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Jo, I really hope so. I want to know what happened to that child. I hope I live long enough to find out.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
YES!! Just what I wanted to hear Jo,