Tourism’s Impact: Analyzing Tourist Areas and Spatial Effects
Prices without improving quality and equivalent competition from other Mediterranean countries in Europe. The dependence on international tour operators are demanding more quality while reducing prices. Environmental degradation and landscape disturbance of tourist areas.
Alternative Tourism and New Tourism Policy
These problems require the reconversion and renovation of the tourism sector. Tourism policy has the following objectives:
- Boosting tourism quality.
- Improving infrastructure and modernizing facilities.
- Enhancing skills and care for the environment.
- Improving the supply to compensate for rigidity, fostering new forms of tourism.
Examples of new forms of tourism:
- National and international senior tourism.
- Sports tourism, nautical tourism, and golf.
- Rural tourism.
- Ecotourism and tourism in parks.
- Urban and cultural tourism.
Other objectives include:
- Reducing external dependence by creating national tour operators.
- Ensuring tourism development is compatible with environmental quality.
Tourist Areas and Their Typology
Tourist areas have a high influx of tourists, both national and international. In Spain, these areas include beach and sun destinations like the Balearic and Canary Islands, the mainland coast, and Madrid. Alongside these large areas, there are sightseeing destinations based on different attractions, such as ski stations, rural tourism, and historic cities in the interior. All these areas can be classified by tourist season and tourism stability.
Sun and Beach Tourist Areas
These are primarily the Balearic and Canary Islands and the peninsular coast. They receive a significant tourist influx due to their climatic characteristics and beaches. They differ in:
- Accessibility: Good aerial and road communication.
Catalonia benefits from its international airport and proximity to Europe by road. Coastal strips away from the highway show an empty model of tourist occupation. In some cases, tourist accommodations are integrated into the urban structure. In other cases, new settlements result in real estate operations with accommodations not integrated, recreational, and sports facilities.
- Type of clientele and quality of accommodations: The established predominance of hotels or other accommodations, of high or medium category, or national and international clientele, differs from others.
Other Tourist Areas
Apart from the sun and sand tourist areas, others are based on different factors:
- Madrid.
- Galician and Cantabrian coast resorts.
- Rural areas.
- Ski stations.
- Cities with artistic heritage.
Spatial Impact of Tourism on Population
Repercussions on Population
Coastal areas attract young people for work, while adults and seniors come from developed areas or abroad, establishing themselves permanently for therapeutic or business reasons. Entertainment or rural areas help curb depopulation and encourage the revitalization of crafts.
Repercussions on Settlement
- The coast contributes to the creation of new settlement structures.
- Rural and urban areas contribute to the rehabilitation of built heritage.
Economic Impacts
- Tourism creates few qualified jobs.
- It has a multiplier effect.
- It contributes a significant amount to the balance of payments and GDP.
- It influences commercial policy and transportation.
Cultural and Sociological Repercussions
- Tourism promotes understanding and contact between cultures.
- It affects the livelihoods of local society, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.
- It affects the quality of life of residents.
Repercussions in Management
Tourist areas transform spaces according to their needs, turning them into creative areas. The consequences are alterations in the environment, economy, and landscape, as well as conflicts in land use and resources.