Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - 11:15 Mark Viales

In one form or another, tourism has long been Gibraltar’s saving grace in trying times. With no natural resources and a limited export market, locals exploited what was at hand and most profitable, the British military.

In the old days, ‘Giannitos’ served the colonial power and catered to their every whim, which usually meant a stream of bars and brothels for soldiers to flush out dreary months of solitude at sea.
Although the military presence in Gibraltar has subsided, the coin earned from the colonial hand left a permanent mark on its residents.