Júzcar, the Smurf Village in Málaga, is now the Blue Village for tourism

Júzcar, in Malaga.

There are decisions that change the perspective of a people. In Júzcar, twelve years ago, all the houses were painted blue like in Domenico Modugno’s song. It was not a tribute to the Italian melodic singer but rather a promotional event for the film Los Smurfs 3D that managed to color an entire town in the Serranía de Ronda.

The movie passed, as they all do, and the houses were also left painted blue, without anyone returning them to their original white, which is the color of traditional whitewashing in the area. The movie left, but the Smurfs stayed. At least its color, which made Júzcar a town different from all the others. Differentiating yourself as a key to rural marketing.

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The town has 250 inhabitants, is in the Upper Genal Valley and in 2022 alone it received about 47,000 visitors, curious to see such a special place that, in addition, is located in a beautiful natural environment. Visitors can find out about the wonders of the area at the town’s tourist information point, a place that, as it could not be otherwise, is an enormous giant mushroom that greets the traveler upon arriving at the town.

The person in charge of tourism in the town is Alfredo Oballe, promoter of tourism and custodian of all the data that may be needed in the town. Any question about Júzcar, if it has an answer, will be part of your knowledge of him. From visitor statistics to the distance between the town and any other surrounding municipality.

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The best tourist year was, precisely, 2013, when the Smurfs were a big thing. The whole world celebrated the arrival of the second part of the animated film and Júzcar benefited from that, receiving 59,815 tourists in its streets. Most of the visitors are Spanish: Andalusians, Madrid, Catalans and Basques, but there are also foreigners, travelers from Turkey, Slovakia, Portugal, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom are remembered.

And of course, being the first Smurf town in the world had to add something. The change came about thanks to Sony Pictures and at the time it was a revolution. 175 properties were painted blue, 9,000 kilos of paint were necessary to renovate the entire town. And whole is whole, because not even the church was free from the clutches of advertising. It was in 2011 and a year later, for the second film in the series, Andrés Iniesta went to the place.

The then mayor of Júzcar, David Fernández, even organized a referendum to ask the residents if they wanted to continue being a blue town once the contract with Sony was concluded and the ‘yes’ won by a large majority. And that’s how it stayed, smurf blue, different from the other towns in the region. Today it remains the same, of course, although the paint is not the same, it has been renewed a couple of times because the color wears off. It is the city council itself that buys the paint and the citizens who make the effort to paint their houses.

Júzcar, in Málaga (Flickr.com).

Carmen is a resident of the town and proudly shows EFE her house, which she painted blue again just a month ago. Firstly because she likes color, but also because she believes that this way the town is different from the others, it attracts tourism and jobs are created.

The neighbors do not want to waste the boost that this film promotion has brought, which has boosted their economy and boosted the number of visitors to the town, despite the fact that this has led to the loss of tranquility.

“Many weekends, up to five buses full of tourists arrive,” highlights Carmen, who lives at the entrance to the town, whose narrow streets are now bustling with visitors who arrive daily by motorcycle, car or bus and who have become the sustenance of the local economy.

Proof of this is that Júzcar has gone from having only one bar to having six, and “with a view to opening two more”, and rural houses have proliferated. Furthermore, interest in buying or renting in the municipality has skyrocketed, where there is currently no property available, Alfredo Oballe states emphatically.

Júzcar can no longer be called ‘Smurf town’ due to copyright issues, so now it is promoted for tourism as the ‘Blue Village’ and, beyond the peculiarity of its color, what it wants is to also be a reference for lovers of nature and rural tourism.

After the pandemic, says Oballe, “what makes the difference is the feeling of contact with nature, the feeling of control and non-crowding,” and that is what Júzcar offers thanks to its location in the Genal Valley: activities hiking, canyoning, zip lines and caving.

For their part, fans of The Smurfs, in addition to walking the peculiar streets of the town, where there is numerous graffiti and figures of these characters, can also participate in hat-making, nail polish and face painting workshops. The goal, the mayor emphasizes, is for visitors to leave Júzcar “with a good taste in their mouths” and a desire to return.

(With information from EFE)

2024-01-20 10:54:37
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