30 Years of Passion: The Time is Right

The Rise of an Internet Pioneer (1996–1998)

By the summer of 1996, the key pieces of the jigsaw were sliding into place for Chris and Michelle Chaplow. While Chris was busy configuring code, Michelle was embarking on a state photography contract for Turespaña, physically travelling to, and photographing 800km of beaches on analogue slide film in medium format, across Andalucia for the Spanish Tourist Board. Knowledge of the region was deepening.

It was a frantic, exhilarating era. Bill Gates was on TV warning of an incoming internet tidal wave, and Steve Jobs was predicting that the World Wide Web would completely revolutionise global commerce. However, in southern Spain, a parallel digital revolution was quietly developing under the palm trees.

The Original Internet Pioneers

Before search engines as we know them existed, getting local businesses online required a massive marketing effort to explain the internet in layman’s terms. The earliest believers to buy space on the platform weren’t corporate giants, but a colourful cast of local expat entrepreneurs:

Simon el Rubio: An English lawyer who made the life-changing decision to become a professional, award-winning flamenco dancer and guitarist. He used the web to promote his international dance tours in China and later sell flamenco apparel worldwide.

Don Lorenzo: A translator living in off the grid, in a remote mountain cottage in Montefrío who from where he translated important UN documents, He later used the internet to rent out cottages in the village and eventually met and married his wife in Montefrio. Lorenzo passed away in 2021.

Dany Car: Run by Swedish businessmen Percy and Robin became the site's very first car rental client.

Aviacion del Sol: The Ronda based hot air balloon company, run by pilot Graham Elson and his charming wife, Pam. They relocated The Massai Mara in Kenya to Andalucia, from the offered Hot air Balloon rides over the town of Ronda and nearby countryside with an authentic Andalusian breakfast and a toast of bubbles.

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Building on a 640-Pixel Screen

In 1996, graphic design agencies completely ignored the web, viewing it as a passing tech fad. Chris designed the site himself, formatting it for a tiny 640-pixel wide computer screen. To make pages load quickly over crawling dial-up modems, photos had to be heavily compressed down to a miniature thumb nail sized 200-pixel width.

The Budget Airline Boom & The Ryder Cup

By 1997. Low-cost carriers like EasyJet and Ryanair burst onto the scene, transforming a trip to the south of Spain from a rigid two-week package holiday into a spontaneous weekend escape. Travellers were hungry for online information about inland hideaways, walking safaris in Grazalema, or hot air ballooning over Ronda.

Traffic surged even higher around the autumn of 1997, when the prestigious Ryder Cup came to Valderrama. It is hard to understate just how much the local tourist industry saw this landmark event as the silver lining to a very slow early-1990s economic recovery.

“A light.” Chris Chaplow

Naturally, Andalucia.com wanted to cover it, but the establishment wasn't quite ready for the digital age. The internet simply wasn't recognised as a press category yet, it didn't even have a tick-box on the official press accreditation forms and was completely ignored. Whilst Chris could attend the pre-tournament press conferences, he couldn't get official access to the event itself. Michelle, however, successfully flew into the thick of the action, thanks to her EFE accreditation and a press flight hosted by Helicópteros Sanitarios.

That is exactly how Chris ended up at the Marbella helipad on the opening day amidst torrential downpours. With celebrities trapped under low clouds watching the golf on TV, Chris found himself standing by a hangar door in the bucketing rain, handed an umbrella, and tasked with running Hollywood star Michael Douglas safely out to his chopper.

The Speck of Dust: Andalucia com SL is Born

By late 1997, traffic was climbing, the client base was growing, and it was time to make the business official. Together with their new business partner, Minoo Gazdar, Chris and Michelle went to a notary on November 24, 1997, to formally establish the company.

Even the official registry couldn't quite comprehend the internet yet; they refused to include a literal dot in the company name. The gestor told them, "You can add a dot if you want to, just think of it as  a speck of dust on the paper."

What started as a pure labour of love in an Estepona living room was officially as a dream was now a reality, perfectly positioned for the future.

The Paper Trail: Even though the registration of the domain name was entirely digital in April 1996, the very first invoice for the Andalucia.com name was actually delivered to Chris by traditional post or snail mail as it was called back then!

“You can add a dot if you want to, everyone will think it is a speck of dust on the paper.” 

The Pioneer Banner: In January 1997, Lou Dinella of Bravo Tours in New Jersey emailed to ask the price of putting a banner on the site. He became the platform's very first paying advertiser, proving the commercial viability of the web early on.

No Vacancy: In the late 90s, major hotels were terrified of double-booking rooms. Chris travelled to Madrid to see a demonstration of an online booking system. He made a few random bookings, but there was never any availability. The IBM business partner leading the project explained that hotel reception staff were setting the availability to zero just in case they were too slow to update it following a telephone or walk-in booking.  

The story continues in our next newsletter
The story is the second part of the Andalucia.com history series Dial up to Digital. Part one can be read here:
Part One : The 1996 story
 

This page forms part of the Andalucia.com Summer 2026 Newsletter

Summer 2026 Newsletter - The Rise of an Internet Pioneer (1996–1998)
Summer 2026 Newsletter - Contributor Spotlight - Contributing Editor - Fiona Flores Watson