Historical evolution of two touristic destinies. Canary Coast and Costa Brava

Abstract

Canary coast and Costa Brava are nowadays two mature destinations in the international tourism field which have decisively contributed to consolidate the model of “sun and beach” tourism in Spain. Although they suffered a completely different situation in the first touristic activity stages at the end of the 19^th century, accordingly with differential geographic and socioeconomic contexts, they converged in the mass tourism burst onto scene from the 60’s, thus their respective development share a lot of common elements in relation with their economic processes, the morphological occupation of the territory, urban expansion and their articulation with big transport infrastructures, as well as the massively created architectural typologies for leisure time. Even though they both followed a tendency for achieving a standardized and recognizable worldwide product, the Canary coast and Costa Brava have preserved singular and contrasted values within the “sun and beach” model, which have happened to become a regenerator and value potential of the coastal territory identity at such a moment when the consciousness of an stagnant economy, in addition to the irreversible landscape degradation, leads the debate about touristic zones. The comparative analysis here presented tackles with wide complexity essential aspects from the life cycle touristic phenomena in both case studies and intends to provide the keys for its projection in future intervention strategies.