Touristic coastal urban regions: conceptualization and first results for the construction of an analysis model

Abstract

The economic strategies implemented in Mexico since the 80s as a result of the decline of Fordism, the globalization of the economy and technological development, detonated a set of urban processes that led to the formation of the urban region. This new spatial model, which had been already recognized in England and United States since the 1960s, has manifested itself in Mexican cities of greater size and importance. In this paper we provide an initial review of the most significant and recent scientific contributions about urban regions. Based on them, we propose an analysis model that enables the definition their most significant processes, in particular touristic coastal urban regions, taking as a case study the region of Puerto Vallarta and Bahía de Banderas, in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit. Since this is an ongoing research, the results focus on the application of two criteria used to define the urban region and its most significant processes, which must be reviewed with the results of fieldwork. In this preliminary analysis, distance and travel time from the core were the two indicators considered for defining the study area. The resulting Urban Region counts a total of more than 363,000 inhabitants, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI, 2006), and includes the city of Puerto Vallarta as well as 228 smaller cities, 13 of which have between 2.500 and 10.000 inhabitants and only 3 have a population between 10.000 and 24.000 inhabitants. We also propose a table with a set of relevant processes and their variables which, according to cited authors, define the urban region (under the conceptual name proposed by each one).